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CIRCA 20:22

Yoko Ono, IMAGINE PEACE

1-31 March, 2022

Fifty-three years after Bed-In, Yoko Ono stages a new global intervention by pausing commercial advertisements on the world’s most prominent digital screens to share a message of peace with the global community. An invitation for the world to unite, Ono will broadcast her powerful, universal mantra IMAGINE PEACE every evening at 20:22. 

The public art installation presented by CIRCA in collaboration with Serpentine, will feature local translations of Yoko Ono’s message to the world. IMAGINE PEACE launched 3 March on London’s Piccadilly Lights and is screening across the CIRCA network in London, Los Angeles, Milan, Melbourne, New York, Seoul and Tokyo every evening throughout March 2022. 

IMAGINE PEACE is a concept born from Yoko Ono and John Lennon’s tireless work as peace activists. In March 1969, the couple staged their first Bed-In – a weeklong peace protest from their honeymoon suite at the Amsterdam Hilton Hotel, boldly communicating their commitment to social justice. This new declaration for peace also marks Ono’s return to London’s Piccadilly Circus, twenty years since she installed a poster carrying the message “Imagine all the people living life in peace” taken from the Lennon-Ono anthem – “Imagine” in March 2002. 

Yoko Ono’s invitation to IMAGINE PEACE has been expressed since the early 2000s through billboards, advertisements, posters and tweets. “Imagining,” said Ono, “is something that we can all do, even when we have different opinions about how to get there.” In 2007, in memory of John Lennon Ono conceived the IMAGINE PEACE TOWER on Viðey Island off the coast of Reykjavík, Iceland, a tower of beaming light, which represents wisdom and love, and acts as a beacon for all those wishing to contribute to world peace. 

 

 

A limited edition print by Yoko Ono is available to purchase on CIRCA.ART for £100. 100% of proceeds will be donated to the United Nations CERF. 

The United Nations Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF), one of the fastest and most effective ways to ensure that urgent humanitarian assistance, including food, clean water, medicine, education and shelter, reaches people in need whenever and wherever crises strike.

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CIRCA SCREEN LOCATIONS

For three minutes every evening (at precisely 20:25 local time throughout the year 2025) CIRCA pauses the adverts across a global network of screens in London’s Piccadilly Circus and elsewhere to reflect and challenge the times we live in, circa now.

London, Piccadilly Lights

Experience  IMAGINE PEACE by Yoko Ono every evening at 20:22 GMT (3-31 March 2022) on the iconic Piccadilly Lights screen.

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Berlin, Kurfürstendamm

Experience  IMAGINE PEACE by Yoko Ono every evening at 20:22 CET (3-31 March 2022) on Berlin’s Limes Kurfürstendamm screen.

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Milan, Cadorna Square

Experience  IMAGINE PEACE by Yoko Ono every evening at 20:22 CET (3-31 March 2022) on Milan’s EssilorLuxottica screen.

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Los Angeles, Pendry West Hollywood

Experience  IMAGINE PEACE by Yoko Ono every evening at 20:22 PST (3-31 March 2022) on the Los Angeles Pendry West Hollywood screen.

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Rome, Fiumicino Airport

Experience  IMAGINE PEACE by Yoko Ono every evening at 20:22 CET (3-31 March 2022) on Rome’s Fiumicino Airport Terminal 1 screens.

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New York, Times Square

Experience  IMAGINE PEACE by Yoko Ono every evening at 20:22 EST (3-31 March 2022) on Times Square’s EssilorLuxottica screen.

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Seoul, COEX K-Pop Square

Experience  IMAGINE PEACE by Yoko Ono every evening at 20:22 KST (3-31 March 2022) on Seoul’s COEX K-Pop Square screen.

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Tokyo, Neo Shibuya TV

Experience  IMAGINE PEACE by Yoko Ono hourly throughout the day (3-31 March 2022) on the NeoShibuya screens in Shibuya Crossing.

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Melbourne, FedSquare

Experience  IMAGINE PEACE by Yoko Ono every evening at 20:22 ACT (3-31 March 2022) on Melbourne’s FedSquare screen.

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#CIRCAECONOMY: United Nations

Written By Barney Pau

The art sector’s benefits are often intangible and can go unseen by contemporary society. CIRCA (Cultural Institute of Radical Contemporary Arts) challenges this by helping to give back through funds generated by their #CIRCAECONOMY initiative.

This is an incredibly challenging time for the arts, with public funds being divested away from institutions and public faith. The #CIRCAECONOMY endeavours to lead by example and show how art can affect change. In light of this, today marks a milestone in CIRCA history as their founder, Josef O’Connor, takes to the stage at the United Nations (UN) headquarters in New York to speak at the High-Level Pledging Event (HLPE) for the Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) of 2023. This invitation to speak comes after CIRCA donated £300,000 to UN CERF following their collaboration with Yoko Ono and Serpentine back in March 2022, making them the second largest private donor after TikTok.

Press

Yoko Ono Website
Partner Mayor of London
Serpentine
Flyposting Build Hollywood
Press release
CNN
Creative Boom
Design Boom
Washington Post
Independent
Yahoo
The Evening Standard
NME Japan

Biography

Yoko Ono

Yoko Ono is an artist, musician, and activist. Born in Tokyo, 1933, Ono was the first woman admitted to the philosophy program at Gakushuin University, Tokyo, where she studied before moving to New York in 1953. By 1960 Ono had become a vital part of the New York avant-garde and the international Fluxus movements. Her boundary-pushing early works include the pioneering feminist performance work Cut Piece, and her book of collected conceptual instructions, Grapefruit, both 1964. By 1968, Ono began collaborating in art, music, and peace activism with her partner and husband John Lennon. As a singer and songwriter, Ono has released fourteen studio albums and eight collaborative albums, including the 1981 Grammy award winning Album of the Year, Double Fantasy. Ono’s artworks and films are widely exhibited internationally and are included numerous prestigious museum and private collections. In 2009 she was awarded the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement from the Venice Biennale. Yoko Ono currently lives and works in New York City.