
Yoko Ono in Montenegro – Exhibition Opening on June 19 at Petrović Castle and the House of the King’s Guard
The Museum of Contemporary Art of Montenegro is proud to announce the exhibition Yoko Ono – “Unfinished”, opening on Thursday, June 19 at 8 PM, across the exhibition spaces of Petrović Castle and the House of the King’s Guard in Kruševac, Podgorica. The curators of the exhibition are Maša Vlaović, Gunnar B. Kvaran, and Connor Monahan.
Yoko Ono is one of the most influential figures of avant-garde and conceptual art of the 20th and 21st centuries. Her work is deeply intertwined with experimentation, performance, poetry, music, and film, as well as with ongoing social and political engagement—especially in the realm of women’s rights and the pursuit of peace. Her art dismantles traditional boundaries between artistic disciplines and rejects the passive role of the audience—inviting each individual to become an active participant, co-creator, and agent of change.
From her early “instruction pieces” of the 1950s to performances and films that call for collective action and reflection, Ono has developed a unique artistic language where the personal and universal, poetic and political, spiritual and physical continuously intertwine.
Curator Maša Vlaović emphasizes that Yoko Ono’s exhibition in Montenegro represents a cultural event of exceptional importance—not only because it introduces the Montenegrin audience to the work of one of the most influential avant-garde artists of the 20th and 21st centuries, but also because it opens up space for considering art as a site for dialogue, social critique, and political activism.
“This is a rare opportunity to observe how experimental art can function both as a formal play of perception and as a tool for transforming reality. In the context of Montenegro, this exhibition appears at a moment when we are asking how contemporary art can engage with local cultural narratives, and how experimental concepts can influence the understanding of art in a society undergoing dynamic socio-cultural change.”
In the accompanying exhibition text, Gunnar B. Kvaran writes that Yoko Ono is a pioneer in rethinking the concept and object of art.
“This exhibition aims to highlight the key elements that define her extensive and multifaceted artistic career, and to underline the significance of her activism for women’s rights and world peace—through a continuous questioning of the very notion of art, imbued with a strong sense of social and political engagement. On one hand, her instruction-based works raise questions about the conceptual underpinnings of the artwork, emphasizing its ephemerality, desacralizing the object, and inviting the audience to participate in the work’s material realization. On the other hand, we are presented with narratives that express the artist’s poetic and critical vision, along with her committed engagement with women’s rights and peace campaigns.”
In his curatorial reflection, Connor Monahan reminds us of the essence of Ono’s practice: “Since the 1970s and throughout the decades that followed, Ono has remained unwavering in her art, activism, and life—believing that individual shifts in perception can create ripples that change the world. She calls on us to transform consciousness, to imagine, to question value systems, to dream and act together, to say yes, to want, and to build a world united in peace—if we want it.”
The exhibition Yoko Ono – “Unfinished” presents a wide range of works—from textual instructions and participatory installations, to performances, video pieces, and documentation of her peace campaigns and human rights activism. Through each of these formats, visitors are invited not to remain mere observers, but to become active participants in the process—to imagine peace, to speak it, write it, and share it.
The exhibition will be open to the public from June 19 to September 15, 2025.