Yoko Ono: Grapefruit

Yoko Ono is a pioneer of conceptualism and the international Fluxus movement, and has been sharing her message of peace and love with the world for nearly 60 years. The Moderna Museet (Stockholm, Sweden) exhibition highlights Yoko Ono’s book Grapefruit from 1964 and features selected instruction pieces that encourage new, imaginative ways of looking at life and creating art. For the exhibition Yoko Ono has made a new piece called Summer Dream and a new instruction piece, that some 20 artists have been invited to respond to.

Grapefruit is a seminal collection of texts, so-called instruction pieces, and has been reprinted in many editions since 1964. One of Yoko Ono’s most famous instructions is Cut Piece from 1964, which the artist herself has performed on several occasions.

The enacted situation consists of Yoko Ono sitting on a stage before an audience, with a pair of scissors in front of her, inviting the audience to cut pieces from her clothing. Filmed documentations of Cut Piece, from 1965 and 2003 and several of Yoko Ono’s legendary Fluxfilms will be shown in the exhibition at Moderna Museet. Yoko Ono’s films have a unique position in 1960s experimental film-making. Several of them are based on instructions published in Grapefruit – for instance, the film No. 1 (Match), which is based on the text Lighting Piece from autumn 1955: “Light a match and watch till it goes out.”

For the exhibition at Moderna Museet, Yoko Ono has written a new instruction, Search for the Fountain. The text has been sent to some 20 artists who have been invited to respond to the text in various ways.  

Dates: from June 6 to September 16.
Location: Moderna Museet. Box 16382. SE-103 27 Stockholm. Sweden.
Opening hours: from Wednesday to Sunday from 10am to 6pm. Tuesdays from 10am to 8pm.