On Kawara: One Million Years

One Million Years is an epic work conceived by On Kawara in 1969, documenting the passage and marking of time. This 20-volume piece consists of two books, each covering one million years—“Past” and “Future.” Dedicated to “all those who have lived and died,” “Past” covers the years from 998,031 BC to 1969 AD, while “Future” is dedicated to “the last one” and extends to 1,001,980 AD. This exhibition marked the first time the work was exhibited in Belgium.

Public readings of One Million Years, with a man and a woman taking turns reading Past and Future dates, have taken place in cities across the world since the first reading in 1993 at the Dia Art Foundation in New York. Each new reading continues in a numerical order from the previous session, until all the years are read.