Palazzo della Ragione in Padua welcomes Ex It, Yoko Ono’s site-specific installation on peace (until 6 Jan 2025) – one hundred wooden coffins of different sizes with olive trees growing from within as a metaphor for the resilience of life and the vitality of nature.
Yoko: I had the opportunity to visit Padua, Italy. I was taken to an ancient stone palace, built many centuries ago: Palazzo della Ragione, built in 1218. Without giving me any explanation, a man took me up to the second floor. In front of me now opened a huge space, similar to a ballroom. Suddenly, in my vision, I saw many people lined up in a row in the room. What was going on? At that moment, the person who had brought me there explained to me that that was a room where executions were carried out. It was not a ballroom. I saw many, many coffins of men, women and children filling the room. Eventually, trees sprouted from each of the coffins. The trees became a forest. Birds sang all around … and I began to cry. That’s how this work was born. It is the memory of every race, every country. It is the memory of genocide: the pain, the horror and the salvation. The dead wanted us to remember, I think. Our tears will help heal the memory.
Find out more here.
