HAN KANG WILL CONTRIBUTE TO THE 100-YEAR ARTWORK FUTURE LIBRARY IN OSLO

Hollow, Katie Paterson, Zeller & Moye

The award-winning novelist Han Kang has been named as the fifth writer to contribute to Future Library. Future Library is a public artwork by Scottish artist Katie Paterson that will unfold over 100 years in the city of Oslo, Norway. The Canadian author Margaret Atwood was the first author to contribute (2014) followed by British novelist David Mitchell (2015) and Icelandic poet, novelist lyricist Sjón (2016), and the author and political commentator Elif Shafak (2017). On May 25th 2019 Han Kang will hand over her manuscript at a special ceremony in the Nordmarka forest, on the outskirts of Oslo’s city centre.

One thousand trees have been planted in the Nordmarka forest, which will supply paper for a special anthology of books to be printed in 100 years' time. Between now and then, one writer every year will contribute a text, with the writings held in trust, unpublished, until 2114. All 100 manuscripts will be held in a specially designed room in the new Deichman Public Library opening in 2020 in Bjørvika, Oslo. No adult living today will ever know what is inside the boxes, other than that they are texts of some kind that will withstand the ravages of time.

Han Kang about the Future Library:
My first impression of the concept of Future library, was that it was a project about time. It deals with the time scope of one hundred years. In Korea, when a couple gets married, people bless them to live together 'for one hundred years'. It sounds like almost an eternity. I can’t survive one hundred years from now, of course. No one who I love can survive, either. This relentless fact has made me reflect on the essential part of my life. Why do I write? Who am I talking to, when I write? Then I imagined a world, where no one I love exists any longer. And in that world, the trees in Norway still exist, who I once met when I was alive. The clear gap of the lifespan between humans and trees struck me. This meditation is so strong that it has the power to directly open our eyes to the impermanence of our mortal lives and all the more precious fragility of our lives.

Ultimately Future Library deals with the fate of paper books. I would like to pray for the fates of both humans and books. May they survive and embrace each other, in and after one hundred years, even though they couldn’t reach eternity.

Katie Paterson says: “Han Kang expands our view of the world. Her stories are disquieting and subversive, exploring violence, cruelty, fleeting life, and the acceptance of human fragility. As 2018’s author, Han Kang causes us confront uncomfortable issues: injustice, pain, mourning and remembering; a shared loss of trust in humankind, alongside the belief in human dignity. She leads us into the very heart of human experience, with writing that is deeply tender, and transformative. I believe her sentiments will be carried through trees, received decades from now, still timeless.”

Chairperson and Editor-in-Chief of Oktober Press Ingeri Engelstad: "The novels of Han Kang are wilful and deeply original. She delves deeply into the human experience, and with a bright, clear prose she explores themes such as sorrow, pain, violence, death and the possibility of transgression. It gives me incredible joy that she will now be the next author in the Future Library."

Han Kang was born in 1970, in Gwang-ju, South Korea. When she was nine years old she moved with her family to Seoul, where she spent her formative years. After studying Korean literature, Han Kang worked as an editor for a cultural magazine and a book review journal. In 1993 she made her debut as a poet and in 1994 she won the Seoul Daily News short story competition. Since then, she has published three collections of short stories, one collection of poetry and seven novels, including Your Cold Hands, The Vegetarian (winner of the Man Booker International Prize for fiction in 2016), Human Acts (winner of the Malaparte Prize in 2017) and The White Book.

Hollow, Katie Paterson, Zeller & Moye

Conceived by Katie Paterson, Future Library is commissioned and produced by Bjørvika Utvikling, and managed by the Future Library Trust. Bjørvika Utvikling is responsible for the construction of the commons, water promenade and technical infrastructure in Bjørvika, a new city district in Oslo. More than 1% of the investment budget for the commons is dedicated to art in public space. The Future Library room in the Deichman Oslo Public Library is designed by the artist and architects Lund Hagem and Atelier Oslo. Supported by the City of Oslo, Agency for Cultural Affairs and Agency for Urban Environment.