On Kawara:

Reading One Million Years

28.2.–1.3.2025

The Japanese-born artist On Kawara (1932 – 2014) dedicated his work to the phenomenon of time and how we experience it. His idiosyncratic work has been a central contribution to conceptual art and makes him one of the main proponents of this movement. He is perhaps best known for his Today series, also known as Date Paintings. A Date Painting is a monochrome canvas in red, blue or grey on which the date of creation is inscribed in white. The date is written in the language and convention of the place where Kawara painted the picture. The pictures were created in hours of painstaking work following a series of steps that never changed. If a painting was not finished by midnight, he destroyed it. Over 5 decades, it also reflects the artist’s life. 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. After more than 30 years and readings at around 50 locations, the sheer volume of both works is still not exhausted. 

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.

For the reading, the HALLE FÜR KUNST Steiermark is looking for voluntary participants who will read for 30 minutes each, alternating with another person. Further information can be found here.

Curator: Jan Tappe