In the north of Oslo, a forest is being planted which will supply paper for a special anthology of books to be printed in 100 years in 2114.
Planted in 2014, this forest is the brainchild of a Scottish artist Katie Paterson, who wanted to create an original library of 100 manuscripts from established authors, to be printed 100 years in the future.
In an interview to CNN she said:
I was on a train doodling and drawing tree rings and I just made a very fast connection between the rings and chapters in a book, and the idea of trees becoming books in the future and growing over time.
[…]
And so I imagined this forest, that embodied time and the authors’ words, growing over a century. And each author’s voice became like a chapter inside the growing rings of the trees. That was many years ago, but I never thought that it was actually going to happen.
Between 2014 and 2114, one writer every year will contribute a text, which will be held in trust, unread and unpublished, until the year 2114. The manuscripts will be stored in a specially designed room in the new public library, Oslo.
Five years ago, Margaret Atwood, became the first writer to participate in the project. Her book is titled ‘Scribbler moon,’ and she believes that readers in 2114 may require a ‘paleo-anthropologist’ to decode some of it, because of how the language would have evolved over the course of a century.
Atwood was not allowed to show her book to anyone. She flew with it to Norway and tied it with a blue ribbon, hoping that she wouldn’t be arrested if a Customs Officer asked her to open the box and she refused.
The Wall Street Journal
Other contributing writers to date include David Mitchell (2015), Sjón (2016), Elif Shafak (2017), and Han Kang (2018).
For the full story go to CNN.
To me, the whole project is a tribute to the written words. Written words are the only thing that stays long beyond its creator.
That is one reason to make art.
Another thought; aren’t forests like libraries, and each tree a book.
