From February 15th to September 1st, 2024, Tate Modern presents UK’s largest exhibition celebrating the influential work of artist and activist Yoko Ono, spanning seven decades of her multidisciplinary practice. Titled YOKO ONO: MUSIC OF THE MIND, the show features over 200 works, including installations, films, music, and photography, highlighting Ono’s radical approach to language, art, and participation. Ono’s art revolves around ideas expressed in poetic, humorous, and profound ways. The exhibition delves into her role in experimental avant-garde circles in New York and Tokyo, focusing on her ‘instruction pieces,’ which encourage visitors to imagine, experience, or complete the work.

Now 90, Yoko Ono is still at it, though not making much art any more. And although many of Ono’s works were first originated as ideas and notes she wrote during the 1950s and 60s, I am sure her retrospective will be popular, not so much for students of fluxus and early performance and conceptual art, so much as for the opportunity to interact. Wanting to be more than mute spectators, audiences now want to do more than pay respect to history, to the blue chip and the elevated. They want to feel included and to have agency. From the start, this was something Ono acknowledged and encouraged. Her exhibition "Music of the Mind" is now at Tate Modern, London, from 15 February to 1 September.

Opening a few days before Ono’s 91st birthday, “Music of the Mind” (Tate Modern, London, 15 February-1 September 2024) will range back to Ono’s early career in the 1960s—well before she entered Lennon’s orbit—exploring a period of participatory work that included the infamous Cut Piece, in which Ono’s clothes were snipped off by her audience, and Bag Piece, in which she performed inside a large black bag. The Tate show’s co-curator Juliet Bingham stresses that a key aim is to highlight that Ono was, artistically speaking, fully formed by the time she crossed paths with The Beatles.

The show "Music of the Mind" (15 February 2024 - 01 September 2024, Tate Modern), explores some of Yoko Ono’s most talked about artworks and performances, from Cut Piece (1964), where people were invited to cut off her clothing, to her banned Film No.4 (Bottoms) (1966-67), which she created as a ‘petition for peace’. Alongside her early performances, works on paper, objects, and music, audiences will discover a selection of her activist projects such as PEACE is POWER and Wish Tree, where visitors can contribute personal wishes for peace.