Exhibition tip: Yoko Ono questions the borders of art and society in the Gropius Bau in Berlin

A woman kneels on an empty stage. She wears a simple black, your attitude is calm, almost meditative. In front of her, an audience sits and one person after the other performs - initially hesitantly, then braver - takes a scissor at hand and cuts a piece out of her fabric. No word falls. No sound distracts. Only the sharp sound of the scissors that runs through the room, like a cut through personal and social limits. The performance is entitled "Cut Piece", it is 1964 in Kyoto. The woman on stage is calledYoko Ono.

What was already a radical gesture of vulnerability at the time-a body that is delivered without resistance to access by the audience-is now considered one of the most important works in the performance art of the 20th century. Ono beyond any control, made her body a projection surface for voyeurism, desire, aggression and vulnerability. Today, decades later, Yoko Ono's influence is more noticeable than ever. Her work looks like a quiet after -care art - in installations that demand participation, in performances that explore body and limits, in art that is not afraid to be uncomfortable. She was one of the first to make the personal political that made the silence loud.

Yoko Ono taught us that art does not have to please, but may touch. Your work is not a completed chapter, but a fluent universe - which can now be entered again in Berlin. With the exhibition„Yoko“ Ono: Music of the Mind“(from April 11, 2025) The Gropius construction of the artistic vision of Yoko Ono dedicates a comprehensive retrospective and opens up a room for encounter, reflection and creative participation.

The exhibition combines over 200 works from seven decades. The work on experiences are poetic and politically, tender and revolutionary, interweave the past and future, intuition and intellect, utopia and reality. Ono's role as a pioneer of concept art is illuminated, starting with her earlier work such as the iconic "Instructance Pieces" - poetic, minimalist instructions that the audience call for specific actions - and "shaking hands", which can experience the same as moments of the connection. In addition to other interactive elements, films, photographs and music works shown are rarely exhibited, which document OnoS creative bandwidth and their political activism. Her early experimental films such as "Film No. 4 (Bottoms)" or "Fly" deal with topics such as identity, control and physicality in a radical way and are among the most influential work of your time.

The retrospective goes far beyond ono's artistic work and shows how your ideas work into the present. Curated by Patrizia Dander and Juliet Bingham in cooperation with the Tate Modern in London and the art collection North Rhine-Westphalia, "Yoko" Ono: Music of the Mind "is not just a tribute to one of the most influentialof the 20th and 21st centuries, but also an appeal to visitors to understand art as a tool for change.

In an ever faster -changing world, Ono's work remains a powerful memory of the fact that even the most abstract and wild ideas can form reality - and that art never stands still.

The exhibition„Yoko Ono: Music of the Mind“The Gropius Bau in Berlin runs from April 11th to August 31st, 2025. On 02.05.2025 Peaches "Cut Piece" by Yoko Ono, tickets can be purchased via the Gropius Baus website.

At the same time, the new National Gallery in Berlin shows "Yoko Ono: Dream Together" until September 14, 2025.