Oslo, Future Library Framtidsbiblioteket. A surreal and ethereal project by Katie Paterson, almost visionary. She challenges the laws of time and space, that intertwines nature and words through an indissoluble thread, consecrating them to eternity.
It is a library where, for a hundred years, every year, a new book will be added but only author and title are known. The texts will be available for consultation starting to 2114.
The books of the Future Library
The books will be printed on paper made from the thousand spruce trees that grow in the Nordmarka forest, on the outskirts of the capital, specially planted for the project. The stories will “sleep” enclosed in transparent glass capsules engraved with the authors’ names and titles. They are in the Silent Room, a room with a view on the forest, with curved walls entirely covered in wood at the new headquarters of the Deichmanske Public Library, currently under construction in Bjørvika.
To fund the project, a thousand paper prints were put on sale, depicting a cross-section of a tree with 100 rings. It’s a symbol of the works that will be part of the library and of the time that elapses between the start of the project and the moment in which they will be readable. The authors were selected for their contribution to literature and poetry and for their imagination.
The project is based on the protection and conservation of nature, on the hope that the future will still be a bright place, in perpetual alternation with the past. In fact, the part of the forest dedicated to it cannot be touched for a century. We could define the Future Library as a sort of dynamic museum of the future, a first experiment of futuristic archaeology.
Who is Katie Paterson?
Born in 1981, she is a Scottish artist who lives in Berlin, considered one of the most innovative contemporary artists. Her works have been acquired by the Guggenheim in New York and the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art. She collaborates with scientists, astronomers, electrical engineers, radio amateurs.
Her works are a combination of art and science and her aim is to investigate the role of the human being on Earth and in time. Katie has live-streamed the sound of a melting glacier, mapped dead stars, compiled a slideshow archive of darkness from the depths of the universe, and created a light bulb to simulate the moonlight’s experience.
The project maybe wants to make death immortal through words, in a cycle for which the future needs the roots of the past to exist. As if words were the lifeblood for trees, destined to grow in symbiosis with letters, sentences, pages of which they represent the tangible part, inseparable from the ethereal one.
We could almost say that it is an educational library capable of teaching the art of waiting, dreaming, the reflection on the future. A projection of the past of the human soul in a certain fixed moment in time, a spaceship that allows the interaction between two worlds, the dark one of the future, hidden under the veil of time and the present one, in which we are living.
Oslo beyond the Future Library
Oslo is one of the coolest cities in Northern Europe! In recent years, many modern neighborhoods have sprung up in the city center and two of the largest art museums in Europe have opened, the MUNCH (that even has a beach in front!) and the National Museum. In addition, the Deichman Bjørvika library is one of the most beautiful in the world.
History lovers should not miss the Viking Ship Museum (currently closed for renovation until 2027), while those who cannot live without music will surely find something to do as Oslo is one of the cities in Europe with the highest number of concerts pro capite!
More than half of Oslo’s municipality is covered by forests and parks, and the fjord winds its way into the city centre, a centre where fewer and fewer cars circulate, and which can be explored on foot, by bike or by public transport.
Oslo is also a gastronomic destination where you can get lost among starred restaurants, food markets such as Vippa Market and food trucks. In addition, organic, vegan and vegetarian restaurants that use local ingredients are increasingly popular.
Oslo has a lot to offer in every season. Autumn is ideal for art exhibitions, spring for sipping a beer outside, wandering around flea markets and having a picnic in the parks. In winter you can try kayaking on the fjord and cross-country skiing in the Oslomarka forest, refueling at the huts with fresh pastries and hot chocolate.
Have we made you want to leave?!