At Dokk1 in Aarhus, new parents can press a hospital button to ring a great bell and share the news with library visitors.
Article
A bell rings in the library. It is neither a return reminder nor closing time. At Dokk1 in Aarhus, Denmark, it can announce a new baby. A small action in a hospital maternity ward becomes a large sound in the library.
Kirstine Roepstorff created the suspended work, Gongen. The tubular bell measures 7.5 metres and weighs three tonnes. New parents at Aarhus University Hospital in Skejby can activate it with a button. It does not automatically broadcast every birth: a family first chooses to share the news.
Dokk1 opened in 2015 as a central library and civic complex. Designed by Schmidt Hammer Lassen, it includes places to meet and handle everyday civic business alongside its reading areas. News of a birth reaches this shared space through the bell suspended inside.
A sun motif and an infinity symbol are engraved on the bell. The work represents new life, but people hear it without knowing the baby’s face or name. Strangers briefly become the audience for the same news.
The button is at the hospital, while the people who hear the bell are in the library. Parents who choose to announce their baby’s arrival do not have to come to Dokk1. Pressing the button shares the news with neighbours who have come to read or attend to everyday business.
Sources and editorial notes
Dokk1 · Gongen and other artworks
Image source · Villy Fink Isaksen
Image use terms · CC BY-SA 4.0
Editorial note: Facts were checked against the linked material. Interpretations are MUADAILY’s editorial perspective. Image: Villy Fink Isaksen · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Dokk1 exterior; the interior bell is not pictured.
Machine-translated from Korean. Read the original.
