There are few cars on the streets of Łódź, most of them stuck in huge snowdrifts. Ice-covered roads glisten in the sun. At 10am, the notary’s office on Żwirki Street is still empty. Slowly, journalists and reporters began to trickle in. Then the heroes of the day arrived: American director David Lynch, architect and businessman Andrzej Walczak and director of the Camerimage film festival Marek Żydowicz. They disappear behind the door. There is no point in peering, because the glass panes in the door are cut in such a way that everything inside is distorted.

Time passes slowly in the cool air, filled with the aura of anxious waiting. Finally, the door swings open. Three men are sitting behind a table, smiling. They have just set up a foundation. In front of them is a forest of microphones, photojournalists fighting to get as close as possible.

“I fell in love with Łódź, its atmosphere and its buildings, from the first time I visited,” David Lynch confesses. When I saw the factories in Łódź, I almost fainted, they were so beautiful. And the heat and the power…

That was the beginning of everything.