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BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art presents On Kawara One Million Years

The BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art presents On Kawara One Million Years an exhibition on view through 29 April 2012.

On Kawara’s One Million Years is an epic work of conceptual art. It speaks simply and directly about a subject that is relevant to us all: the passage and marking of time. The monumental 20-volume work is comprised of Past, a typewritten record of the date of every year from 998,031 BC to 1969 AD and future, which accounts for 1996 AD to 1,001,995 AD. Past is dedicated to ‘all those who have lived and died’ and future is ‘for the last one’. Conceived in 1969, live readings of the work have since been performed across the world, with a man and a woman alternating the reading of Past and future dates in numerical order.

This exhibition is an opportunity for you to participate by reading aloud, with hundreds of others, from this landmark work. readings take place continuously in one and a half hour slots, every day.

I read happily, without thought, without time or worry. I think about how art has long sought to vanquish time, stretch it, crawl inside it. In One Million Years, Kawara allows us to muse about duration and life. The weeks pass, life goes on, but I keep returning to watch and read. Jerry Saltz, New york magazine

To take part and book your slot in advance, e-mail [email protected] or book online at avfestival.co.uk

BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art
Gateshead Quays South Shore Road Gateshead NE8 3BA UK
Tel: +44 (0) 191 478 1810
Fax: +44 (0) 191 478 1922
Email: [email protected]
www.balticmill.com

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