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Vie des Arts

Yoko Ono: Fly Center for Contemporary Art, September 18 - October 26, 2008 Dorota Kozinska

Volume 52, numéro 213, supplément, hiver 2008–2009

URI : https://id.erudit.org/iderudit/62110ac

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Éditeur(s) La Société La Vie des Arts

ISSN 0042-5435 (imprimé) 1923-3183 (numérique)

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Citer ce compte rendu Kozinska, D. (2008). Compte rendu de [: Fly / Center for Contemporary Art, September 18 - October 26, 2008]. Vie des Arts, 52(213), 6–7.

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YOKO ONO FLY

By Dorota Kozinska

SHE MAY BE CALLED A "POOR NEGLECTED SUPERSTAR" BY THE MERCILESS BRITISH

PRESS, BUT IN POLAND, YOKO ONO IS THE TALK OF THE TOWN. INTERNATIONAL REVIEWS

The town in question is Warsaw, where "When I selected the works, I was think­ of the fly, as it alights on a pink nipple or a the controversial avant-garde artist orga­ ing about the fear, pain and suffering you Up, or dances just inches above an undulat­ nized and curated a mini retrospective of went through during the war. I myself ing belly. her most famous works. Transforming the was in Japan during the Second World War As to the Instruction series, they included Centre for Contemporary Art, housed in as a young girl and remember there was the famous Wish Tree where viewers can the picturesque, historical l6'h century incredible poverty, pain... but such pain gives write their wish on a piece of paper and hang Ujazdowski Casde, into a giant interactive incredible wisdom," Ono told the press. it up in the branches. All wishes are then playground, she clearly continued her love The exhibition is based on her Instruction gathered and brought to Iceland to Imagine affair with the Polish public. works, which focus on the conceptual prin­ Peace Tower, which Ono built in order to She was effusive in her response to the ciples behind the art work, the participation commemorate . journalists welcoming her to the city: "The of spectators in its production and material There were empty rooms inviting visitors air in Warsaw is very intimate and close to realization, the ethereality and de-sanctifica- to write on the walls, and other empty rooms me. I feel like I am coming back to some­ tion of the art object, while at the same time, where the artist has written messages in tiny where [... ] that I have forgotten about." these works, with their profound social and lettering on each wall. One read: "This room Ono was referring to her two previous political references, express the critical vision moves at the same speed as the clouds." visits to the Polish capitol - the first in 1986, of the artist herself. There was a room with broken china, when, as part of her goodwill Starpeace "I've never tried to shock people," she smashed by the artist during the press tour, she held a concert at Torwar; said during the opening press conference, conference, and now handed over to the the second in 1993, when she held her adding with a delicate laugh, "I am always imagination of the visitors, who, equipped first exhibit at the Centre for Contemporary shocked when they're shocked." with white masking tape, could set to create Art (CSW). The main element of Ono's art is, and their own work of art from the broken She thus explained her affinity for always has been, viewer participation. Her shards. Poland: "The reason I feel so close to decision to create an artwork in flux, rather And then there was, Ex It, a room filled Warsaw and Poland is because I also than as a static object beyond time, to a with tiny wooden coffins, from the heads come from a small country and these complete deconstruction of the creative of which sprung five saplings. The sound of small countries are always between big process as a work of art in itself, was a birds was piped into the space and the bright countries and how we survive is an radical move indeed. She presented works lighting rendered the scene profoundly incredible thing. " that were to a large degree if not entirely disturbing. The latest exhibit, Fly, is a result of col­ constructed, or completed, by the viewer, as Its message sounded loud and clear, laboration between the Astrup Fearnley well as works that were deconstructed and and there was very little chatter among the Modern Art Museum in Oslo, Norway destroyed by the same means of artistic visiting public. and CSW. expression. For a "witch", as she is so often unkindly Gunnar B. Kvaran, director of the Oslo It was her art that seduced John Lennon called, Ono can certainly create some celes­ museum, described the exhibit as mainly before he encountered the woman herself. tial and highly moving artistic experiences. text-based, made up of pieces that were It may have been during his visit to her show At 75, she is as fresh and contemporary as created into art in the exhibition space itself. at a London gallery in 1966 - facts and myth ever, and we can only envy the Polish public Some of them date back to the 1950s, cov­ go hand in hand in the John and Yoko saga for having had the opportunity to encounter ering Ono's career until now, and "include - and it may have been her black dress this fascinating artist and her art. an element of participation from the performance, in which Ono sat on an empty But with 2009 marking the 40"1 anniver­ viewer." white stage clad in black, and viewers were sary of Lennon and Ono's infamous bed-in Fly is a cumulative exhibition, showing given little scissors and invited to cut off bits at Montreal's Queen Elizabeth Hotel, we just various works in different media from the of her dress, until she remained naked. might get lucky. • entirety of Ono's career as a multi-media The almost unbearable subtlety of this artist. Pieces shown included the epony­ performance, and its aesthetic simplicity are mous Fly, 1970 (a 25 minute film); Blue a trademark of this incredible, and highly EXHIBITION Room, 1966; Ex It, 1997; Amaze, 1971; undervalued artist. Wish Tree, 1997; Memory Painting, 2008; In her seminal video Fly, two insects YOKO ONO FLY and a piece specially mounted for Warsaw hover over the prostrate body of a naked, Center for Contemporary Art called Telephone for Warsaw, 2008. motionless woman. Several screens focus Ujazdowski Castle on different angles, there is no sound, and Warsaw, Poland one is soon mesmerized by the movement September 18 - October 26, 2008

VIE DES ARTS N°212