{"id":4766,"date":"2026-06-29T17:37:48","date_gmt":"2026-06-29T16:37:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogg.lnu.se\/unesco\/?p=4766"},"modified":"2026-06-29T17:42:00","modified_gmt":"2026-06-29T16:42:00","slug":"future-library-oslo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogg.lnu.se\/unesco\/?p=4766","title":{"rendered":"Future Library Oslo"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

I participated 27-29 June 2026 in a weekend with the Future Library<\/a> project in Oslo. The occasion was the handover of the manuscripts of Tommy Orange and Amitav Ghosh to this 100-year project created by Katie Peterson in 2014. All three were present. On the main day, some 150 people participated: from Norway, many other European countries, Mexico, and the US.<\/p>\n\n\n

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The handover ceremony on 28 June 2026 in the Future Library<\/em> forest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The weekend involved various performances including a handover ceremony in the Future Library <\/em>forest north of Oslo (see picture above), the placing of the unread manuscripts until 2114 into the Future Library<\/em> room in the Deichman Bj\u00f8rvika Public Library in Oslo (see picture below), and a Symposium of the Long-Term Art Projects (LTAP)<\/a> initiative entitled “What Can Art Do for the Future?”<\/a>. I contributed by co-chairing (with Richard Sandford, UCL) a panel offering “Perspectives on a Long Future”, with three present custodians of long-term art projects from Germany, the Netherlands, and Austria.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Among the participants of the Symposium were Marianne Borgen (former Mayor of Oslo), Anne Beate Hovind (curator of the Future Library project), Michael M\u00fcnker (founder and co-ordinator of LTAP) and Lydia Caldana (Foresight Policy Analyst at EU Policy Lab).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I like to see the Future Library project in Oslo, as many of the other long-term art projects elsewhere, as an exercise in practicing heritage futures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The heritage is in this case is both natural and cultural. The natural heritage<\/strong> is the Future Library<\/em> forest where in 2014 the trees have been planted that in 2114 are anticipated to be used to produce the paper on which the manuscripts of the (by then) 100 manuscripts will be printed. The cultural heritage<\/strong> are not only the unread texts, the public library where they will be stored until 2114, and the books then to be printed, but also the annual public handover and placing rituals in which many people participate, celebrating the power of art and culture.<\/p>\n\n\n

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The Future Library<\/em> room, eventually containing 100 unread texts to be printed after 2114.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This heritage is negotiating the relations between present and future societies in several ways. On one level, it transmits texts for up to one century into the future. On another level, it involves a community of authors and project facilitators in the present that takes on a commitment for the future and in doing so spreads hope and trust in many uncertain events and processes that lie ahead of all of us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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