One Million Years is one of the artist’s best-known works about the passage and marking of time. It was first made in 1969, the year of the Woodstock music festival, major civil protests against the Vietnam War and man’s first landing on the moon. The first audio presentation of the reading of One Million Years occurred in 1993 during Kawara’s yearlong solo exhibition “One Thousand Days One Million Years” at Dia Center for the Arts in New York. Visitors could hear One Million Years [Future] being read, while viewing One Million Years [Past] and a group of date paintings. The longest public reading from One Million Years took place at Documenta 11 in 2002, where male and female participants sat side by side in a glass enclosure taking turns reading dates for the duration of the 100-day exhibition, switching between [Past] and [Future]. In 2004, the project traveled to Trafalgar Square in London for a continuous outdoor reading lasting 7 days and 7 nights. Since then, readings and recordings have taken place in cities around the world.
For his one-hundred-year calendars, Kawara, starting with the date of his birth, systematically marks each day of his life with a yellow dot on the calendars, and registers a completed date painting with a green dot (red dots signify that more than one painting was completed on that given day).
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『100万年過去』と『100万年未来』がある。過去編は”998031 BC”（紀元前998,031年）から始まり、以下、1ページに500年分が”998030 BC 998029BC 998028 BC.. “のように延々とタイプ打ちされ、最後の2,001ページ目は”1969 AD”（西暦1969年）で終わっている。「これまで生き、死んだ全ての人へ」（原文英語）という献辞がある。未来編は同様に西暦1981年から西暦1,000,980年までの百万年をタイプしたもので、”FOR THE LAST ONE”（最後の1人へ）という献辞がある。
One Million Years
by On Kawara (河原温)
One Million Years is one of the artist’s best-known works about the passage and marking of time. It was first made in 1969, the year of the Woodstock music festival, major civil protests against the Vietnam War and man’s first landing on the moon. The first audio presentation of the reading of One Million Years occurred in 1993 during Kawara’s yearlong solo exhibition “One Thousand Days One Million Years” at Dia Center for the Arts in New York. Visitors could hear One Million Years [Future] being read, while viewing One Million Years [Past] and a group of date paintings. The longest public reading from One Million Years took place at Documenta 11 in 2002, where male and female participants sat side by side in a glass enclosure taking turns reading dates for the duration of the 100-day exhibition, switching between [Past] and [Future]. In 2004, the project traveled to Trafalgar Square in London for a continuous outdoor reading lasting 7 days and 7 nights. Since then, readings and recordings have taken place in cities around the world.
For his one-hundred-year calendars, Kawara, starting with the date of his birth, systematically marks each day of his life with a yellow dot on the calendars, and registers a completed date painting with a green dot (red dots signify that more than one painting was completed on that given day).
______________________________
『100万年過去』と『100万年未来』がある。過去編は”998031 BC”（紀元前998,031年）から始まり、以下、1ページに500年分が”998030 BC 998029BC 998028 BC.. “のように延々とタイプ打ちされ、最後の2,001ページ目は”1969 AD”（西暦1969年）で終わっている。「これまで生き、死んだ全ての人へ」（原文英語）という献辞がある。未来編は同様に西暦1981年から西暦1,000,980年までの百万年をタイプしたもので、”FOR THE LAST ONE”（最後の1人へ）という献辞がある。