Han Kang’s ‘The White Book’ quote decorates Stockholm’s city hall facade

“White, by nature, is nothing at all, but within that nothingness, everything exists.” A Korean quote and its English translation from 2024 Nobel Prize winner Han Kang’s novel “The White Book” were projected onto the façade of Stockholm City Hall with her photo next to them on Saturday afternoon (local time). Laser projections of female Nobel Prize winners including Han Kang decorated the surface of the building in celebration of the Nobel Week 2024.

The Nobel Foundation holds an annual light festival titled the Nobel Week Lights in 16 different urban places from 4 p.m. to 10 p.m. every day from Saturday to this upcoming Sunday. With the city located at a high latitude of 59 degrees north, the sun goes down around 3 p.m. in December.

Han Kang’s projections are displayed as part of the “Leading Lights” on the outer walls of the city hall and the “De Aderton” artwork at the seaport on the other side. Created by design studio L'atelier BK, the Leading Lights showcases a 9-minute-long video highlighting 65 female Nobel Prize winners, starting from Marie Curie, the first of the group. Han Kang appears twice as part of the video dedicated to the laureates and their achievements.

“De Aderton” refers to 18 members appointed for life at the Swedish Academy, which selects Nobel Prize Winners in Literature. Inspired by a total of 18 female authors awarded Nobel Prizes as of this year, faux stained-glass portraits of the 18 female Nobel Prize laureates were produced by the KTH School of Architecture to commemorate Selma Ragerlf, the 1,909 winner, and Han Kang, this year’s winner. A total of 121 people have been presented with the Nobel Prize in Literature since 1901, but only 18 of them, or 14.9%, have been female writers. This year marks the 5th year of the Nobel Week Lights, a free-of-charge outdoor festival.


김민 기자 somin@donga.com