ON KAWARA: ONE MILLION YEARS
 

Booking Guidance – Please Read Before Booking

From this page you can book your session to read from On Kawara’s epic 20-volume typewritten record of One Million Years at BALTIC. You can book for any of the four daily time slots listed above from Thu 1 March – Sun 29 April. 

Booking a reading session means you are confirmed for that time slot, it is essential that you attend your reading. None attendance will affect all the other participants readings on that day. We require notification of any cancellations minimum 48 hours in advance.

It is essential that you pick the time slot for your gender. Each live reading involves a man and a woman alternating reading Past and Future dates. We will not be able to proceed with your reading if this data is entered incorrectly.

Please arrive 20-30 minutes before your reading slot and report to the Information Desk. Check the daily millennium bridge closing times, which could delay your journey.

Further guidance will be sent to you on receipt of booking your reading slot. If you have any further questions about the project please email: onemillionyears@avfestival.co.uk

One Million Years takes place at BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art, Gateshead Quays, South Shore Road, Gateshead, NE8 3BA. 

About One Million Years

On Kawara’s One Million Years is an ongoing epic work conceived by the artist in 1969, documenting the passage of chronological time. This 20-volume work is a typewritten record of one million years – Past and Future. Biblical in scale, each volume contains 2,068 pages. Past is dedicated to “all those who have lived and died” and Future is “for the last one”.

This exhibition is a unique opportunity for you to read from the work, and participate in the extraordinary ongoing project to complete a public reading of the entire One Million Years. This is only the second time live readings have taken place in the UK.

The first reading of One Million Years took place in 1993 at Dia Center for the Arts in New York. Since then live readings have been performed across the world, with a man and woman alternating reading odd and even dates, from Past or Future volumes. Each new reading continues in numerical order from the previous session, until all the years are read. Watch a video of participants reading at David Zwirner Gallery, New York in 2009 here.

For the exhibition at BALTIC we are looking for men and women to read in 90-minute slots together. Each day, four time slots are available, for the duration of the two-month exhibition. You can participate in one session, or even come back regularly to continue reading. If you want to read with a friend of the opposite gender, you can book slots together. It is essential to book your place/s in advance.

One Million Years enables us to grasp time itself in the physical act of reading the dates aloud. It powerfully condenses our entire human history to only a few pages, and an average human life to a few lines. 

When & Where

BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art
Gateshead Quays
South Shore Road
Gateshead
NE8 3BA

 
Thu 1 March 2012 – Sun 29 April 2012
Exhibition open: 10am - 6pm daily, Tues 10.30am - 6pm