Color, Fly, Sky

To mark her 60th birthday, the Stiftung Starke presented at the Löwenpalais the second part of Yoko Ono’s life’s work.
The 86 wooden crosses set up in the garden in front of the house were so-called “Wish Pieces”, which, each in one of 86 different languages, instruct the viewer to make a wish when the sun is reflected in the mirrors fixed to the crosses. The sculpture of the Russian soldier, which visitors could paint with blue paint, symbolised the fact that each of us is a kind of soldier who should fight for a positive world. One should not destroy monuments, for the individual soldier is innocent. The colour blue – the sky – and flying are the central points of her exhibition, which was documented in the gallery in five rooms: the Sky-Gazing Room, the Flying Room, the Water Glass Room, the Washbasin Room and the Ladder Room. The instruction “How to fly” recurs again and again – how one can become able to fly. This instruction is meant to say that one should free one’s head of all negative thoughts, that one should keep one’s body pure, and that one should try to fly – which, however, only works if one thinks that way; and the realisation that not everyone thinks that way should not stop us from flying. Finally, the numerous ladders in the garden behind the palais were meant to invite visitors to climb them in order to see the sky.

Yoko Ono seeks to convey her philosophy in a great variety of ways: often poetic, almost always direct and sometimes shocking.

Give peace a chance!

Most of the exhibits were collected in person by Jörg Starke, by lorry, from the Museum of Contemporary Art in Copenhagen, so that transport costs could be kept low. Sponsors from industry were won over, and they financed most of the flights and printing costs.