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Japanese artist Yoko Ono's "Yoko Ono: Insound and Instructure" exhibition has opened at the Sakip Sabanci Museum (SSM) in Istanbul's Emirgan district. The show brings together 60 works that place imagination, mental effort, and audience participation at the center of the artistic experience.
Prepared in cooperation with Museo de Arte Contemporaneo de Castilla y Leon, known as MUSAC, the exhibition came to Istanbul after its presentation in the Spanish city of Leon. It traces Ono's works from the 1960s to the present, covering poetry, drawing, photography, video, sculpture, and installation.
SSM Director Professor Ahu Antmen said Ono's artistic journey reflects the tension between tradition and modernity, while also carrying traces of the political turmoil of the 1960s and her engagement with popular culture.
Antmen described Ono as not only an artist with nearly 70 years of uninterrupted production, but also as a figure who narrates the story of contemporary art. She noted that Ono is often described as "the world's most famous unknown artist," adding that although this perception has started to break down since the 2000s, it still largely remains.
According to Antmen, Ono's works ask what art is and where its boundaries lie. She said the artist's practice is not centered on objects, but on participants, adding: "Yoko Ono works with imagination and does not use permanent material. Her main material is mental effort and imagination."
Studio One Director and co-curator Connor Monahan said Ono's defining feature is her production of open, unfinished, and living works. This approach, he said, turns her art into a participatory practice rather than a closed object.
Monahan noted that even though Ono began creating larger installations after the 1990s, her message stayed the same. He said the artist presents her works as fragments rather than complete forms, inviting visitors to take part in creating and experiencing art.
"This exhibition truly would not exist without the participants who visit it," Monahan said.
Curator Jon Hendricks described Ono as an activist who uses her work to move beyond borders and conflict. Referring to the presence of war and division in the world, he said Ono's works, from photographs of mothers to invisible flags, reflect an effort to cross those boundaries.
MUSAC Director Alvaro Rodrigez said the cooperation between MUSAC and SSM was important, adding that it was meaningful for the Spanish museum to share the exhibition with an ambitious institution such as SSM.
The exhibition includes Ono's landmark early works, such as "Grapefruit," "Cut Piece," "Sky Ladders" and "Mend Piece," as well as large-scale installations made from the 1990s onward and works completed through visitor participation.
The SSM exhibition is presented as one of the two major recent exhibitions offering a comprehensive look at Ono's artistic practice, alongside "Music of the Mind," which met audiences at Tate Modern in London, Gropius Bau in Berlin and the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago.
"Yoko Ono: Insound and Instructure" will remain open to visitors until Dec. 27.
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