Yoko Ono’s art on show at the Nobel Peace Center in Oslo

Yoko Ono, August 2011. Photo: Matthew Placek © Yoko Ono
Yoko Ono, August 2011. Photo: Matthew Placek © Yoko Ono 
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The exhibition YOKO ONO - PEACE is POWER opens at the Nobel Peace Center in Oslo on 1 December.

For the first time since 2005, the world leading artist and peace activist, Yoko Ono, is exhibiting in Norway. YOKO ONO - PEACE is POWER, opens at the Nobel Peace Center on 1 December, as a part of the center’s reopening after months of closure due to renovation. The exhibition includes some of Yoko Ono’s most known artworks, inviting visitors to engage in their creation by following the artist’s own instructions.

"For Yoko Ono, the message of peace, activism, and art go hand in hand," says the Nobel Peace Center’s Executive Director Kjersti Fløgstad. "Her participatory art is completely in line with the Nobel Peace Center's mission to inspire small- and large-scale changes that can help make the world a more peaceful place."

Message of peace

Two weeks before the exhibition opens, from 13 November, a public peace campaign left its mark on cities across Norway. Large billboards in urban areas and subway stations were filled with messages of peace. Yoko Ono and John Lennon first began public advertising campaigns for peace in 1969 with their iconic WAR IS OVER! If you want it campaign. Yoko Ono has continued public campaigns for peace to this day. In March 2022, after the Russian full-scale invasion of Ukraine, an IMAGINE PEACE campaign lit up billboards in the cities of New York, London, Los Angeles, Milan, Berlin, Rome, Melbourne, Tokyo, and Seoul. The campaign in Norway is in a cooperation between the Nobel Peace Center, Yoko Ono’s studio and Clear Channel.

“The peace messages Yoko Ono and John Lennon formulated during the Vietnam War are, unfortunately, just as relevant today. We hope the campaign will make people wake up and want to get involved”, Fløgstad said.

Ono in Oslo and London

At 90, Yoko Ono is opening not only the exhibition at the Nobel Peace Center in December 2023, but also an exhibition at Tate Modern in London in February 2024. The exhibition YOKO ONO - PEACE is POWER is curated especially for the Nobel Peace Center, in cooperation with the former director of the Astrup Fearnley Museum, Gunnar B. Kvaran.

“Yoko Ono, who grew up in Tokyo, was 12 when the nuclear bombs were dropped over Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Her deep engagement for peace has permeated her more than 60-year long career as artist and activist and makes her art fit extraordinary well in a place like the Nobel Peace Center”, says Kvaran.

Welcome to a press preview of the exhibition YOKO ONO - PEACE is POWER at the Nobel Peace Center on Friday 1 December at 10.00 – 11.00. Please register with: ibr@nobelpeacecenter.org

Yoko Ono, August 2011. Photo: Matthew Placek © Yoko Ono
Yoko Ono, August 2011. Photo: Matthew Placek © Yoko Ono
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Guggenheim, Bilbao, Spain. March 2014. Photo: Erika Ede © Yoko Ono
Guggenheim, Bilbao, Spain. March 2014. Photo: Erika Ede © Yoko Ono
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Times Square, 1969. © Yoko Ono Lennon
Times Square, 1969. © Yoko Ono Lennon
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Oslo, 2023. Photo: Christian Tunge / Nobel Peace Center ©️ Yoko Ono
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YOKO ONO - PEACE is POWER at the Nobel Peace Center. Photo: Christian Tunge / Nobels Fredssenter (c) Yoko Ono
YOKO ONO - PEACE is POWER at the Nobel Peace Center. Photo: Christian Tunge / Nobels Fredssenter (c) Yoko Ono
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YOKO ONO - PEACE is POWER at the Nobel Peace Center. Photo: Christian Tunge / Nobels Fredssenter (c) Yoko Ono
YOKO ONO - PEACE is POWER at the Nobel Peace Center. Photo: Christian Tunge / Nobels Fredssenter (c) Yoko Ono
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About the Nobel Peace Center

  • one of Norway's most visited museums, with more than 200.000 visitors per year, including school groups
  • presents the story of Alfred Nobel, the Nobel Peace Prize laureates and their work
  • is situated in the heart of Oslo, near the City Hall
  • Kjersti Fløgstad is the Executive Director, Olav Njølstad is Chair of the Board
  • Main partners are Hydro and Reitan Retail

Press contact

Tara Bamberg

Tara Bamberg

tb@nobelpeacecenter.org

+47 455 04 573