Future Library (Framtidsbiblioteket)

The Future Library is one of the most quietly radical art projects in Europe: a 100-year publishing project in which one author per year contributes an unpublished manuscript to be printed and released in 2114. The manuscripts are stored in a purpose-built room in the new Deichman Library at Bjørvika, alongside a small exhibition about the project. In the Nordmarka forest north of Oslo, 1,000 trees have been planted that will eventually be cut to print the collection.

The forest itself — about 30 minutes from Oslo by metro to Maridalen — is the part you can visit now. The trees are marked. You can walk among them and think about what books they will become. The annual ceremony where the author hands over their manuscript is open to the public. Contributors have included Margaret Atwood, David Mitchell, Karl Ove Knausgård, and Elif Shafak.

things to do sight
A story
Every year from 2014 to 2114, one author will contribute a previously unpublished manuscript to the Future Library project. The manuscripts will be locked away, unread, until 2114 — when they will be printed on paper made from 1,000 trees planted in the Nordmarka forest specifically for the project. Katie Paterson, the Scottish artist who conceived it, described it as "a vote of confidence in the future" — an act of faith that there will still be readers, books, and trees in 100 years. The first author was Margaret Atwood. No one alive today will read what she wrote.