From June 23th to October 22nd CorpArtes will present Dream Come True, one of the most successful exhibitions by the Japanese artist, Yoko Ono. The project also comprises an open call starting from March 8th, entitled Arising that aims to encourage women who have suffered from gender violence to provide their testimonies.
Over 80 pieces including objects, videos, films, installations and sound recordings created from the 60s to the present will be a part of the innovative exhibition that renowned Japanese artist Yoko Ono will present at the cultural center of the CorpArtes Foundation. The sample represents, for the undisputable leading artist of interactive conceptual art, a metaphor of her artistic trajectory and a constructive criticism of current culture.
After a showing in Mexico City and another in Buenos Aires at the Buenos Aires Latin American Art Museum, Malba, where it had an overwhelming success, Dream Come True will arrive at Santiago on June 23rd and will remain open until October 22nd, 2017.
Associated with conceptual art, performance, the neo avant-garde group Fluxus and the happenings of the 60s, Yoko Ono has been a pioneer in questioning the concept and art object. She has broken the traditional frontiers of different artistic disciplines and has invited the spectator to assume a leading role in the production of her pieces. Using a clear and universal language, she produces objects, events, rituals and actions whose precise production is complemented by audience participation. The instructions are simple and poetic messages that urge the spectators to perform certain actions, like listening to the sound of the Earth or lighting a match and watching it until it extinguishes.
These instructions are the main axis of Dream Come True, which submerge the audience in the world that the artist brings forward. Dream Come True encompasses several activities that will take place before and throughout the duration of the sample. An example is the Arising open call that will start March 8th and will close on October 8th. Yoko Ono and CorpArtes call women who have been victims of gender violence to participate in Arising, through submitting their testimonies at the CorpArtes Web page, will open a path for the healing of the aggressed. Agustín Pérez Rubio, the artistic director at Malba and co-curator of the sample along with Gunnar B. Kvaran, explained: “Yoko is one of the first feminist artists. In her broad artistic practices the idea of community is widely present, and one of the main pillars of her work is the rejection of violence. Arising proofs this because she works around gender violence, which will allow the participants to be an inseparable part of the sample.”
Dream Come True
From June 23th to October 22nd
Dream Come True not only presents a compilation of the texts or instructions that Yoko Ono has created, but also a wide range of pieces that are rooted in the instructions. The most relevant include the first instruction ever to be made by the artist in the fall of 1955, Lighting Piece, (“Light a match and watch it till it goes out”), and One (Match), 1966, where the instruction is followed. Another example would be Laugh Piece, (“Keep laughing a week”), winter 1961, or Five (Smile), 1968, with a close-up of John Lennon’s face moving from a grimace to an expression of pure joy.
Her whisper pieces are also worth mentioning, with which the artist has been encouraging people to leave the exhibition wearing phrases like Dream, Touch and Laugh in their clothes since 2001.
Yoko Ono’s instructions allow for the production of diverse art pieces (texts, performances, sounds, installations, films and objects), clearly exemplified in the instruction piece Ceiling Painting, Yes Painting, 1966, the reason Yoko Ono and John Lennon met, which says: “Climb up a ladder. Look at the painting on the ceiling with a magnifying glass, and find the word ‘YES’.” Much like written texts, the pieces can be read by the spectator, but they can also be presented by the artist or other people.
Arising open call
From March 8th to October 8th
Online submission: www.corpartes.cl/yoko-ono-resurgiendo/
In the context of Dream Come True, Yoko Ono and CorpArtes call Latin American women who have been victims of gender violence to participate in the project called Arising. The idea behind the Japanese artist’s proposal is for women in the region “who have suffered from any sort of abuse for the simple fact of being a woman” to share their experience anonymously along with a picture of their eyes through the website: www.corpartes.cl/yoko-ono-resurgiendo/. The gathered material will integrate a multimedia installation that will be a part of the exhibition. Through this instruction, addressing only women, Yoko Ono offers an opportunity for catharsis and healing for those whose bodies o minds have been victims of aggressions, aiming to provide the space to make their stories public with a first-hand testimony.
Arising is a project by Yoko Ono that, from its first open call in April 2013, has told hundreds of thousands of women’s testimonies from all over the world. It was exhibited for the first time in the 55th Venice Biennale at the Palazzo Bembo as a part of the sample Personal Structures. “Listen to your heart, respect your intuition. There’s no limitation, have courage, have rage, we’re all together. Follow your heart, use your intuition, make your manifestation, there’s no confusion,” John Lennon’s widow once wrote.
About Yoko Ono
Yoko Ono was born in Japan on February 18th 1933 and she was part of the avant-garde movement in the 60s. She was involved in the Fluxus group and a prolific creator of conceptual art, where ideas are the motor and essence of the art piece, even becoming more important than its physical shape and the use of production technique.
She organized several concerts in which the audience themselves had to imagine the music, she edited a famous book of drawings and art pieces (Grapefruit), several conceptual films (like Fly) an immeasurable experimental records, such as Yoko Ono/Plastic Ono Band, Fly, Approximately Infinite Universe (70s) and Season of Glass (80s). In the 90s she launched two records that were well-received by the critics: Rising and Blueprint for a Sunrise. To date, her greatest hits are Walking on Thin Ice and, the slightly less popular Never Say Goodbye.
The records in which she collaborated with John Lennon include Unfinished Music No.1: Two Virgins, Unfinished Music No.2: Life with the Lions, Wedding Album, Some Time in New York City, Double Fantasy and the posthumous Milk and Honey.
A large portion of Yoko Ono’s work addresses topics like freedom of thought; peace; the battle against racism, homophobia and sexism; and the appreciation of great little daily sensations. A defining characteristic of her art is the economical use of resources that produce the maximum effect possible, reused and loaded with new meaning.
WHERE: CA660 Itaú Corpbanca, CorpArtes Foundation.
WHEN: Arising open call, from March 8th to October 8th. Dream Come True exhibition, from June 23rd to October 22nd.
ADDRESS: Rosario Norte 660, -2 level. Las Condes.