Unveiled as part of this year’s fantastically curated Ideas at the House showcase, Tokyo-born performance artist Yoko Ono will appear on stage for the first time in Australia at the Sydney Opera House this November in conversation with MCA Chief Curator, Rachel Kent. The octogenarian Renaissance Woman, provocateur, performance artist, peace activist and avant-garde musician described by late, great husband John Lennon as “the world’s most famous unknown artist” will sit in conversation, radiate electrons and discuss a variety of topics including her life, art, music, and activism.
“Yoko Ono has been a pioneering artist all her life,” Ideas at the House curator Ann Mossop said of Ono’s influence. “As a conceptual artist, as a musician, as a collaborator with others – and as the recent success of her Meltdown Festival at the Southbank in London shows, she is still vitally engaged in art and activism. Her talk as part of Ideas at the House is a unique opportunity to hear her talk about her work, her ideas and her extraordinary life.”
In 2013 she was a curator of the Meltdown Festival in London, is a high profile spokesperson for Artists Against Fracking, and is releasing a new album with the Plastic Ono Band in September. Sydney will be the only Australian venue for an adjoining exhibition, War Is Over! (if you want it): Yoko Ono at the MCA, a retrospective spanning five decades of Ono’s artworks, many of which involve direct interaction with the audience.
Ideas at the House is Sydney Opera House’s talks and ideas program. It presents ideas, conversation and debate from leading thinkers and culture creators. As well as a year-round program of inspiring events, Ideas at the House features the annual festivals All About Women and the Festival of Dangerous Ideas.
In Conversation with Yoko Ono: War Is Over! (if you want it)
When: Sunday 17 November 2013, 3.00pm
Where: Sydney Opera House, Joan Sutherland Theatre
Tickets: $35 – $45 sydneyoperahouse.com 02 9250 7777
