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Vie des Arts
Imagine: The Peace Ballad of John & Yoko Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, www.mmfa.qc.ca, April 2 to June 24, 2009 Dorota Kozinska
Volume 53, Number 215, Supplement, Summer 2009
URI: https://id.erudit.org/iderudit/61884ac
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Publisher(s) La Société La Vie des Arts
ISSN 0042-5435 (print) 1923-3183 (digital)
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Cite this review Kozinska, D. (2009). Review of [Imagine: The Peace Ballad of John & Yoko / Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, www.mmfa.qc.ca, April 2 to June 24, 2009]. Vie des Arts, 53(215), 10–10.
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MONTRÉAL, QC IMAGINE THE PEACE BALLAD OF JOHN & YOKO
Dorota Kozinska John Lennon et Yoko Ono entourés de journalistes, chambre 1742, hôiel Queen Elizabeth, Montréal, 1969 Montreal Museum of Fine Arts John Lennon and Yoko Ono surrounded by journalists. Room 1742. Queen Elizabeth Hotel, Montreal, 1%9 Jean-Noel Desmarais Pavilion play, the timeless reminders of Photo Le Journal de Montréal / Jacques Bourdon 1380 Sherbrooke Str. W. those heady times, and a con Tel.: (514) 285-2000 tinuing link to the present - The exhibition is neatly di tions that had visitors write their www.mmfa.qc.ca a connection underlined by vided into comprehensive chap sentiments on labels and attach April 2 to June 24, 2009 Yoko Ono herself, who opened ters, from an introduction to the them to the tree branches, which the exhibition, causing quite a era and the artists' separate yet by the way, were real. stir with her vast entourage of complimentary opposition to What was not real was John Advertised as a grand coup body guards and agents. political events, their first meeting Lennon's famous white piano, a for Montreal, this 'exclusively at It proved to be a kind of a in 1966, through the Bed-in and replica of which was placed in the the Montreal of Fine Arts' exhibi treasure hunt for the writer, the "War is Over! If you Want It" centre of large white circular tion on the theme of John meandering among the eclectic furore of 1969, to the New York panels that resembled a stylized Lennon's and Yoko Ono's Bed-in mementos not only of an era, but City days and the final, still rele Stonehenge. The song Imagine offers a mixture of the historical also of one of the most fascinat vant, Imagine Peace segment. emanated from the loudspeakers, with the didactic, blended to ing relationships, one between The room marking the meet creating an eerie, altar-like atmo gether in a thick air of idolatry. two kindred souls of such di ing of the two at the preview of sphere. Those brave enough were Organised by the MMFA in col verse backgrounds. Ono's exhibition Unfinished invited to perform their own ver laboration with Ms Ono, it will Upon entering the exhibition Paintings and Objects at sion of the song at the keys, get be presented as well as part of hall, the visitor is instandy in London's Indica Gallery, was ting as close to their dead idol as this year's Venice Biennale. vited into a private, intimate where I first struck gold with the one can get, I imagine. John's Forty years after the famous space, greeted by old photo Ceiling Painting installation presence, ethereal throughout happening-cum-protest held in graphs of John and Yoko, and composed of a white ladder, with the exhibition and consisting Suite 1742 of Montreal's Queen the sound of their haunting a white square suspended above mainly of his voice mingling with Elizabeth Hotel, the show, alas, voices calling each other's it, upon which appeared a tiny the ambient sounds of the public, is but an echo of the thrill the names. word 'yes'. There was also a video as well as piped in, almost took duo caused in the city, mosdy This invisible reaching out of her mesmerizing 1965 perfor shape within the confines of the giving those who were witness to weaves throughout the show and mance Cut Pieces, in which the space. that seminal moment a frisson of is the work of the exhibition's art visiting public was invited to cut And yet, despite the contrived memory, an opportunity to director and sound designer, off small fragments of the black nature of this corner of The reminisce. Thierry Planelle, former art di dress she was wearing. Peace Ballad of John & Yoko But memory is all that is left, rector at Virgin Music/EMI and Ono's avant-garde, minimal exhibition, it was the hardest despite rooms filled with photo visual and sound creative direc ist pieces are truly fascinating, room to leave... John reciting graphs, record covers, letters, tor for Virgin France. Now an combining refined sophistica these unforgettable words, and notes, both musical and Literary, independent producer for the tion with touching frank expres Yoko's voice calling to him from a sampling of John's delicate line Maturity Music label, he also sion of a personal vision, as in somewhere far away... drawings, a replica of the hotel created the aural design for the Glass Keys to Open Skies. And before I shake the nos bed, and another of Lennon's MMFA's exhibition Warhol Live. Her invitation to participate talgia, I will wallow in it for a white grand piano. Aware of the 'constant dialogue' in the creative process has be while longer, and quote from Intent on avoiding the written between John and Yoko through come Ono's trademark, and Ono's Grapefruit haiku collec material - already mentally satu out their lives and careers, he despite the mosdy didactic, not tion and inspiration for the song rated with the plethora of texts magically reproduced this con to say commemorative character Imagine: on John and Yoko and the wild nection in the ethereal, other of this exhibition, she managed A dream you dream alone is days of the Plastic Ono Band and worldly voices that follow and to draw the Montreal public into only a dream, Nutopia -1 decided to focus on seek each other, it seems for her world and beyond, as in her A dream you dream to the actual works of art on dis eternity. ubiquitous Wish Tree installa gether is reality, u
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