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Marek Domański
 
The Energy of the Time of EC2

 
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The Energy of the Time of EC2
 
Three chimneys and several monumental buildings form an image that has become a part of the landscape of the Łódź city centre. Colossal buildings of the EC2 heat and power plant at Wróblewskiego street presented in the photographs by Marek Domański resemble images from old science fiction movies: desolate halls, knotted pipes, intense light and equally intense darkness, a small human figure here and there. However, for the careful observer this is not merely a series of vivid pictures: it is most of all an exceptional document of the industrial architecture of Łódź. And it is exceptional because it differs from the conventional ways of showing Łódź, from the images of 19th century factories and their red brick. But it is also a document of the transformation of an industrial city.
      The EC2 heat and power plant was built in the second half of the 20th century. In those times it was one of the biggest and most important building complexes in the city. Built in the spirit of socialist realism, it was meant to reinforce the idea of the New State and new Political System in which industry was the main driving gear.
      The Energia Czasu EC2 [The Energy of the Time of EC2] project is an artistic documentation of this architectural giant but also an image of the final years of the plant’s operation which for many years supplied heat and electricity to one of the largest quarters of the city of Łódź – Retkinia. We will find here photographs of the plant’s interiors, symmetrically arranged buildings, characteristic chimney coolers and gigantic machines.
      The project was made possible thanks to the commission from the Dalkia Łódź Company in collaboration with the International Festival of Photography in Łódź. It was inspired by the photographs by Wiktor Jekimenko who in the 1920s and 40s documented the building of the first power plant in Łódź, the EC1. Marek Domański’s photographs were taken between July 2012 and January 2013.

Marek Domański
 
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