On Kawara: Reading One Million Years — HALLE FÜR KUNST Steiermark

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On Kawara, *One Million Years*, 1970 – 71 / 1980 – 1998
20 leather-bound postal folders in individual slipcases with plastic covers and inserted printed matter
each 29 x 24 x 8 cm
© On Kawara. Photo: Kris McKay © The Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, New York

Text

The Japanese-born artist On Kawara (1932−2014) dedicated his work to the phenomenon of time and how we experience it. One Million Years is perhaps his most fluid work. Formed of two parts entitled One Million Years: Past and One Million Years: Future, respectively, the work comprises two sets of ten binders with a total of two thousand pages of text. Each page contains five hundred years printed in ten columns and fifty lines. The folders containing the past years were created in 1970 and 1971 and their lists end with the year preceding their compilation. The folders containing future dates, were created between 1980 and 1998, and begin with the year after they were made. The ten years between 1971 and 1980 are not represented in either group of works. In total, Kawara produced both parts in an edition of 12 pieces each.

In 1993, Kawara expanded One Million Years to include live and recorded readings, allowing the project to be preserved and continued through public recitation. Each new session begins where the previous one ended — counting slowly from the past into the present or from the present into the future until the contents of all ten volumes of both works have been read aloud and the work — at least in this activated state — comes to an end.

HALLE FÜR KUNST Steiermark is delighted to be the first institution in Austria to participate in this unique and distinctive project, keeping alive the work of one of the 20th century’s most outstanding artists.

Curator: Jan Tappe

Artists

Participating artists

Solo exhibitions, Presentations & Readings (selection): Kunstmuseum St. Gallen, Switzerland (2022), Bundeskunsthalle Bonn (2021), Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden (2020), Museum MACAN, Jakarta (2018), 57th Venice Biennale, Venice (1957), Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York (2015), BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art, Gateshead (2012), Jardin des Plantes, Paris (2012), David Zwirner, New York (2012, 2009, 2001, 1999), Dallas Museum of Art (2008), Ikon Gallery, Birmingham (2006), Städtische Galerie im Lehnbachhaus, Munich (2000), MMK Museum für Moderne Kunst, Frankfurt am Main (1996), Kölnischer Kunstverein (1995), Dia Center for the Arts, New York (1993), The Renaissance Society, Chicago (1989), Portikus, Frankfurt am Main (1989), Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris (1977).

Group exhibitions (selection): Musée d’art Moderne de Paris, Paris (2024), Kunsthalle Baden-Baden, Baden-Baden (2023), Kunsthall Charlottenburg, Copenhagen (2023), Pallazzo Grassi — Punta della Dogana, Venice (2023), MUMOK, Vienna (2022), Hamburger Kunsthalle (2022), Fundació Joan Miró, Barcelona (2022), Hiroshima City Museum of Contemporary Art, Hiroshima (2019), Kunstmuseum Basel (2019), Walker Art Center, Minneapolis (2017−2020), Museum of Modern Art, New York (2017−2020), Museo Jumex, Mexico City (2016), Museo de Arte de Sao Paulo (2016), Whitney Museum of American Art, New York (2015), Schaulager, Basel (2015), ZKM|Center for Art and Media, Karlsruhe (2006), The Museum of Modern Art, New York (2006), 4th Gwangju Biennale, Gwangju, Korea (2002), Documenta 7 & 11, Kassel (1982 / 2002), 11th Biennale of Sydney, Sydney (1998).