The 5 in Lodz Library is being created by the EC1 Lodz Foundation. Since the beginning it was designed as one of the elements of the historical EC1 electro power station. The Library will consist of sets of five books, pointed out by the donors as the most important books of  their lives, books that have decided about life choices of the authorities involved in the project. The EC1 Lodz Foundation asks artists, philosophers, scientists, politicians, great sportsmen, human rights defenders, inventors, economists for their favorite sets of books. Each set of books will be placed in a transparent box featured with a label with the name of the person who donated his favorite books and with the book’s titles, translated into different languages. The boxes will become transparent bricks in the wall of our Library. The letter, which we send as an invitation to join the project, asking for books, explains the idea of the  5 in Lodz Library. The 5 in Lodz Library will be, in a very 21st century sense, a global collection, overcoming traditional divisions into national literatures, opened to all parts of the world. As various as the contents of all so far written books. We will collect sets of books from all countries, from the representatives of different cultures, religions and life philosophies. Those who will respond to our invitation to participate in the project and donate five books – will, thanks to them,  “login” into the Library. Will present themselves to others in a very simple and understandable way. For the library’s visitors the wall made of books will become a kind of  mirror, allowing them to reflect on their own choices and to follow the intellectual, political or artistic paths of the personalities involved.

See the interview with Andrzej Walczak, the representative of the Mayor of Łódź concerning the Special Art Zone project, about the unusual idea of the 5 in Lodz Library