Yoko Ono’s groundbreaking multidisciplinary practice, which includes music, poetry, painting, drawing, performance, film, and installations, challenges and expands existing forms of art and thought. Essential to Ono’s work is a participatory approach, often activated by her conceptual use of scores and instructions, and her strong belief in the power of thought, action, and language to create peace. Her ongoing activism takes experimental and unique forms, for instance: as a film – like her initially censored Film Nr. 4 (Bottoms) (1966–1967), which was a petition for peace initiated and instructed by the artist, or like the bed-ins for peace (nonviolent protests against wars) together with John Lennon (1969). “I like to fight the establishment by using methods that are so far removed from establishment-type thinking that the establishment doesn’t know how to fight back”, Ono commented 1969 in context of her and Lennon’s BED PEACE.

The artist’s billboard campaigns since the 1960s are reminiscent of her instructions on a formal and conceptual level. Written in minimalistic language and with clear messages, they invite active participation – IMAGINE PEACE; DREAM; TOUCH; FLY. In close collaboration with Yoko Ono’s studio, two of the artist’s works will be displayed in succession in Berlin’s public space as part of the n.b.k. Billboard series. The project begins during Berlin Art Week in September 2024 with the work FLY (1963/2024) and continues in March 2025 with a second work, which will be on display for another six months, coinciding with Yoko Ono’s retrospective at Gropius Bau (April 11–August 31, 2025).

The word “fly” has been a recurring theme in Yoko Ono’s work, acting as a starting point for many of her projects and pieces since the 1960s. As both a verb and a noun, “fly” offers multiple linguistic dimensions for exploration. In the early 1960s, Ono organized FLY events in Japan, the USA and England with the active participation of the audience, who were invited to jump from stepladders of different heights into the room. In her book Grapefruit (1970), she published the instruction FLY PIECE (1963), which simply states: “Fly.” Her film FLY, shot in New York in the 1970s, is based on Ono’s score Fly (Film No. 13) from 1968: “Let a fly walk on a woman’s body from toe to head and fly out of the window.” In this film, actor Virginia Lust’s naked body is “explored” by a fly for 24 minutes. Through this piece, the artist engaged with the American feminist movement of the late 1960s and 1970s, using the woman’s body and the fly as personal statements. For Ono, the fly evokes associations with dirt and decay while simultaneously embodying the idea of a free spirit. To her, FLY represents both a physical act and a metaphorical concept, symbolizing liberation and empowerment.

Yoko Ono (*1933 in Tokyo, lives and works in New York) has been participating in numerous international exhibitions and projects, a. o. recently: Tate Modern, London (2024); Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, Düsseldorf (2024); Nobel Peace Center, Oslo (2023); CIRCA/Serpentine (2022); Museum der Bildenden Künste, Leipzig (2019); Museum of Modern Art, New York (2015). Yoko Ono is recipient of several awards, a. o., the Golden Lion for her life’s work at the Venice Biennale (2009), the International Human Rights Award – Dr. Rainer Hildebrandt-Medal (2012) and the Oskar-Kokoschka-Award (2012).