The LFTT (Legs Foundation for the Translation of Things*) Library is a four hundred year old library which was rescued from near abandonment and reinvigorated as an independent traveling art space. It was once the private library of a group of Franciscan Monks. Now as a mobile archive and movable venue it forms a unique context and body of material for initiating creative projects. Items in the library range in subject matter from theology to mysticism, poetry, literature, science, and an array of Irish ‘rebel’ writing, and represent a striking snapshot of Irish history which was about to be lost.

To date many Irish and international artists have translated its volumes into video and sound works, sculpture and installation, music, performance and theatre all of which expands on what initially constituted the ‘archive’ as a collection of disowned knowledge hidden behind the sealed walls of a Franciscan Monastery. (Above image shows artist Jessica Foley’s ‘Elsies Counter’ at Highlanes Gallery, Drogheda, 2013)

*An idea with reach is said to have “legs” and the word translation was historically used as a term to describe the movement of objects, particularly sacred ones, from place to place. E: thelfttlibrary@gmail.com