YOKO ONO: IMAGINE PEACE
Press Release
TO VIEW THE IMAGINE PEACE VIDEO, PLEASE VISIT IMAGINE PEACE
IMAGINE PEACE PRODUCTS AVAILABLE BEGINNING ON JUNE 21
For product purchases in the US, visit WORKS ON WHATEVER
For the UK and Europe, visit SELFRIDGES
Yoko Ono’s IMAGINE PEACE message to appear in the UK during 2012 Olympics
IMAGINE PEACE is a public art installation presented by Art Production Fund as part of the London 2012 Festival, a spectacular 12-week nationwide celebration from June 21 to September 9 2012, bringing together leading artists from across the world. The project will consist of Yoko Ono's IMAGINE PEACE message, translated into 24 world languages, appearing on London 2012 Live Sites screens, and screens at Victoria Park, Hyde Park, and Art on the Underground/Canary Warf. Accompanying this installation is John Lennon's historic anthem Imagine from 1971. Yoko Ono will also have a concurrent solo exhibition entitled To the Light on view from June 19th to September 9th 2012 at Serpentine Gallery.
IMAGINE PEACE is artist Yoko Ono’s worldwide initiative of anti-violence. This ongoing project uses internet projects and presence, posters, thoughts, badges, and a multitude of other medias to communicate its message of peace to the global community. Past IMAGINE PEACE projects include the IMAGINE PEACE TOWER in Reykjavik, Iceland (2007) and IMAGINE PEACE for PAUSE at The Cosmopolitan Las Vegas produced by Art Production Fund (2010). The impact of this campaign is tremendous and continues to grow. Over the past few years the artist has also collected over 1 million wishes, to be sent to the IMAGINE PEACE TOWER in Iceland. Yoko Ono has nearly 2.4 million Twitter followers, 2.5 million views on YouTube as well as hundreds of thousands of supporters through other social media outlets.
To support and spread awareness of this project, Art Production Fund will release special-edition IMAGINE PEACE products as part of the Works on Whatever (WOW) line of artist-designed everyday items. The products will be available at SELFRIDGES during the London 2012 Festival, and all proceeds from sales will support public art. "We are really excited to collaborate with Yoko Ono and Art Production Fund at Selfridges. This is a unique opportunity for us to work with an icon of the Twenty-first Century and to help bring awareness to her very worthwhile peace programme," said Judd Crane, Director of Womenswear at Selfridges. The IMAGINE PEACE products will also be available for a limited time at www.selfridges.com and www.worksonwhatever.com starting June 21, 2012.
“Let us come together to realize a peaceful world” - Yoko Ono.
About the Cultural Olympiad and London 2012 Festival
The London 2012 Cultural Olympiad is the largest cultural celebration in the history of the modern Olympic and Paralympic Movements. Spread over four years, it is designed to give everyone in the UK a chance to be part of London 2012 and inspire creativity across all forms of culture, especially among young people.
The culmination of the Cultural Olympiad will be the London 2012 Festival, a spectacular 12-week nationwide celebration bringing together leading artists from across the world, from June 21st through the final day of the Paralympic Games on September 9th. The London 2012 Festival will celebrate the huge range, quality and accessibility of the UK’s world-class culture including dance, music, theatre, the visual arts, fashion, film and digital innovation, giving the opportunity for people across the UK to celebrate the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games. For more details on the programme and to sign up for information visit www.london2012.com/festival
Yoko Ono (b. 1933, Tokyo, Japan) lives and works in New York. Ono is an influential artist who pushes the boundaries of the art, film, music and theatre media. She received the prestigious Golden Lion Award for Lifetime Achievement at the 2009 Venice Biennale.
Art Production Fund (APF) is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization dedicated to commissioning and producing ambitious public art projects, reaching new audiences and expanding awareness through contemporary art. Co-Founders: Yvonne Force Villareal & Doreen Remen; Director: Casey Fremont Crowe. UK Projects Director: Vanessa Arelle.
For more information please visit: http://www.artproductionfund.org/projects/yoko-ono-imagine-peace
