On Kawara

One Million Years (Past and Future).
2002

Audio, total duration 1,920’
Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven

One Million Years.
1999

Book, planography on paper.
Two volumes, each 15 × 11.4 × 4.2 cm
Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven

Made up of two parts—One Million Years: Past and One Million Years: Future—On Kawara’s One Million Years consists of 24 discreet works, each comprising a set of ten binders containing 200 pages of text. Twelve of these sets span past millennia and twelve span the future, with the years represented varying from work to work based on the year in which they were assembled. The One Million Years: Past works, made in 1970 and 1971, count back one million years to end with the year prior to their creation— for example, 998,031 BC through 1969 AD—and are subtitled “For all those who have lived and died.” The One Million Years: Future works, which were made from 1980 to 1998, begin with the year following their creation and count forward—for example, 1999 AD to 1,001,995 AD—and are subtitled “For the last one.” The two volumes on view at the exhibition are not included in the body of 24 works. They are edition books published by Éditions Micheline Szwajcer & Michèle Didier, which were made in collaboration with Kawara.

Once we overcome the chilling realization that our lives merely take up a few lines on a single page, we notice that Kawara removed from the flow of time the ten years between the two parts of the work (1971–1980). This may be intended to highlight that time has a different thickness, which can make it hard to accurately assign a “pastness” to an event or to pinpoint the moment when the future starts if you have already given birth to it. It may also be a reminder to speculate more about how consciousness exists, from and to which time can be seen to be flowing.

From 1993 onward, Kawara added live and recorded readings to the books. This opened up the project to more dimensions of experience and also allowed it to keep going in time. Every reading is set by a protocol, with clear guidelines issued by the artist. Each session begins where the last one ended. Given that it will take around 200 years to read all the years in the volumes, this project is bound to outlive not only us but also many of the generations to come.

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