By Nina Hermansen, AAU Communication and Public Affairs
Translated by LeeAnn Iovanni, AAU Communication and Public Affairs

In Britain, universities with unique campus environments have been built for centuries. And before the end of the year, students, staff and guests at Aalborg University can experience something similar.
On the occasion of Aalborg University's 50th anniversary, the Spar Nord Foundation granted nearly DKK 6 million to realize Kirstine Roepstorff's work Den Galaktiske Fællespark [Galactic Community Park].

The park will be built on what today is a windswept lawn close to Aalborg University's library, and with its 6000 square meters it will function as both a leisure and study space on several levels. There will be nooks and corners for reading, conversation and games in a landscape of trees, fruit bushes, paths, brightly coloured lamps and pavilions.

Fulfils students' wishes

The large grant is a continuation of the university's new art strategy ‘One Campus’ which proposes that art at Aalborg University should not only be decorative but should also solve several major challenges on campus.

Students were involved in developing the strategy. In several workshops, they indicated that Aalborg University's campus in Aalborg East lacks a place where people from different programmes and semesters can come together, and where there is room for a lot of people to gather at once.

Rector Per Michael Johansen is thrilled that it is now possible to fulfil the students' wishes while also benefiting the area's many residents and guests:

"At Aalborg University, we provide world-leading education and research. But the dialogue with the students showed that there are important, basic things that the campus does not support in its current form. Aalborg University must be an attractive place to be a student, and therefore we are really looking forward to Den Galaktiske Fællespark becoming a reality. This is the manifestation of ‘One Campus’ – an area that will create life and become an active meeting place for students and locals in Aalborg East."

Renowned artist behind new park

Artist Kirstine Roepstorff’s work includes a number of major art projects, and she has exhibited at Statens Museum for Kunst and the Museum of Modern Art in New York.  She hopes Den Galaktiske Fællespark will be a setting for both intentional and spontaneous meetings – on the park's amphi-stage or in one of the many nooks where you can retreat and talk more privately.

"The park has one kind of life during the day, and when darkness falls, the coloured lights come on and the park transforms into a new landscape, a backdrop of colours and space. A gesamtkunstwerk, a total work of art. As an artist, I can create opportunities, draw frames and suggest tempos, but the wish is of course that the students themselves take over and create their very own dynamic, mutual, community oasis," says Kirstine Roepstorff.

The Spar Nord Foundation that is financing the park sees the artist's thinking as fitting well with the foundation's vision of strengthening community cohesion and benefiting large and small communities.

Foundation Director Bo Uggerhøj says:

"With Den Galaktiske Fællespark, the students have a space for both social and academic interaction, just as they requested. There will be space for difference and the opportunity to think big, think new and show thoughtfulness. The students can define the content themselves, and they can come together across programmes and semesters. At the same time, the park will be open to everyone in the local area who can freely use its various spaces. That way, the university and the local area will hopefully also be more united."

Art project to facilitate wayfinding

In addition to Den Galaktiske Fællespark, students and staff at Aalborg University can look forward to the donations of two other foundations - the Obel Family Foundation and the Salling Foundations – of DKK two million and one million, respectively, to realize an additional art project on campus.

This is about Hesselholdt & Mejlvang's work ‘Flags of Knowledge’. The work consists of brightly coloured flagpoles with flags and wind banners set up at bus stops. The aim is for the work to make it easier to navigate campus, given the very large area that the university spans.

Breaking ground for both Den Galaktiske Fællespark and ‘Flags of Knowledge’ will take place this spring.