At Cittadellarte, a small literary cradle in the name of food is being built. The new library, dedicated to the macro-world of food and called “Crossbook”, will be housed in the Restaurant Crossquare. It is a Let Eat Bi project aiming at sharing, through the written word, the values and the objectives the association promotes and develops with its partners. A modern agorà where, whilst sipping a coffee, possibly over a chat with the other guests about the contents of your last read, you can bring and borrow books. A library, still almost empty for the time being, which wants to become a network and source of knowledge in the food farming sector.

One of the objectives of the project is making the library accessible to everyone: it will therefore include children’s books and books in languages different from Italian and English. There’s no limits, as long as food remains the common denominator of the texts. All the books donated – not necessarily new – will bear the sticker with the Let Eat Bi logo, identifying the volumes as belonging to the Crossbook collection. You can donate your book in person, leaving it at the till point of the restaurant (from Tuesday to Sunday from 9.30 to 1.00 am, Mondays from 9.30 to 18.30) or sending it to “Cittadellarte – Fondazione Pistoletto, via Serralunga 27 – 13900 Biella”, clearly indicating Crossquare as the recipient.

“Dear cittadinidellarte, ambassadors and ambassadress, friends and visitors of Cittadellarte and its Coworking spaces, guests of Crossquare, – writes Armona Pistoletto, president of Let Eat Bi, in a letter about the new library – we now have a library in Cittadellarte’s Restaurant Crossquare. The library will be in progress, and we can all contribute to make it interesting, useful, stimulating and fascinating. We have decided to ask all of you for a book so as to be able to create the Crossquare reference library together.”

The theme of the books – explains Armona Pistoletto – is food, we therefore need recipe books, travel books centred on food, books about food from the world, food production, art and food, suggestions on how to eat healthy, etc. Any language will be welcome, as long as they are books conveying a meaning of sustainability, ecology, ethics, natural farming or dedicated to important themes directly linked to food, something more than mere cooking instructions books or books about eating. The collection started with Alle radici dell’agricoltura (At the roots of agriculture) by Gigi Manenti and Cristina Sala (partner Let Eat Bi since 2014). We hope to receive a lot of books to expand our collection as much as possible: thank you very much for your contribution!”