MUSAC devotes a major survey to Yoko Ono, a key figure in the history of contemporary art, trailblazer of conceptual art, performance and film; renowned musician and peace activist. Yoko Ono: Insound and instructure brings together more than 80 works spanning over six decades of the artist’s career, from her celebrated pieces of the very early 1960s to recent projects that underline the continuing relevance of her work.

Born in Tokyo in 1933, Yoko Ono studied philosophy, poetry, and music composition in both Japan and the United States. She began creating her first works in the 1950s, laying the foundations for a practice that continues to evolve today.

The exhibition’s title originates from a concert and exhibition held by Ono on July 20, 1964, at Yamaichi Hall in Kyoto. Both terms reflect the ways in which she integrates sound and instruction into her work. The starting point of many of Ono’s works lies in her instructions—text-based pieces that invite the reader to imagine, experience, perform, or complete the work. In Ono’s art, ideas, rather than materials, form the core of her artistic practice.

By the early 1960s, Ono’s New York loft at 112 Chambers Street had become a vital hub for experimental art, where she and La Monte Young co-curated a series of groundbreaking performances. The activities at Chambers Street helped lay the groundwork for what would soon evolve into the Fluxus movement, which Ono went on to play a pivotal role in developing alongside George Maciunas. The exhibition highlights her influence as a pioneer of conceptual art, performance, experimental film, installation, and audience participation.

In 1964, Ono published Grapefruit, a germinal collection of over 200 instructional pieces that invite viewers to realize the works through their own participation. Several of the pieces presented here trace their origins to Grapefruit, while others belong to later decades, reflecting Ono’s focus on activism and on themes including feminism, peace, and the environment through an enduring spirit of experimentation and inquiry.

Insound and instructure offers a journey through nearly seventy years of Yoko Ono’s creative life. Bringing together works across media and time, it unfolds as a non-chronological dialogue between ideas, actions, and forms—a testament to an artist whose practice continues to imagine new possibilities for art and for the world.