LEOPOLD MUSEUM: SUPPORT FOR “PHARMACISTS WITHOUT BORDERS” DURING THE CRISIS IN UKRAINE – FREE ADMISSION FOR REFUGEES FROM UKRAINE

04.04.2022

IMAGINE PEACE: Leopold Museum shows Yoko Ono's plea for peace

Support for “Pharmacists Without Borders”

As a sign of solidarity with the people of Ukraine suffering from the war, the Leopold Museum has decided to support the activities of the Austrian non-profit association “Apotheker ohne Grenzen Österreich (AoG Ö)” [Pharmacists Without Borders Austria] – founded in 2017 based on the model of the international association Pharmaciens Sans Frontières – with a donation of several thousand Euros.

“Faced with the humanitarian crisis in Ukraine, we are donating the entire museum proceeds from Sunday, 13th March to ‘Apotheker ohne Grenzen’”, the Leopold Museum’s Director Hans-Peter Wipplinger explained when presenting the association with the donation. That day, the museum offered free admission to its visitors but asked them to make a donation for Ukraine. Both the takings from the donation box as well as the proceeds from all tickets previously booked or purchased at the MuseumQuartier’s ticket desk were placed at the disposal of AoG Ö. The Leopold Museum’s directors, Hans-Peter Wipplinger and Moritz Stipsicz, presented the chairwoman of AoG Ö, Mag.a Irina Schwabegger-Wager, with a check in the amount of 4,000 Euros at the Leopold Museum. Schwabegger-Wager thanked them for this impromptu initiative.

https://www.apothekerohnegrenzen.at/

Free Admission for Displaced Persons from Ukraine

With immediate effect and until further notice, refugees from Ukraine may visit the Leopold Museum for free upon presentation of a Ukrainian passport or ID card for displaced persons.

IMAGINE PEACE: LEOPOLD MUSEUM SHOWS YOKO ONO’S PLEA FOR PEACE

The large-scale screen on the facade of the Leopold Museum will display the iconic work Imagine Peace by the artist and activist for peace and human rights Yoko Ono. Director Hans-Peter Wipplinger feels that this widely visible appeal for peace, shown in the main square of the highly frequented MuseumsQuartier, sends a very important message: “Faced with the dramatic developments of the conflict in Ukraine, the Leopold Museum wants to broadcast this plea for peace. Shown within a central site of European art and culture, Yoko Ono’s work asks us to imagine a world that strives for peace and gets along without violence. At present, this wish for peace is directed at the millions of people in Ukraine that are suffering from the chaos of war.” The message of peace is currently displayed in prominent locations all over the world, for instance at Piccadilly Circus in London, at Times Square in New York and at K-Pop-Square in Seoul, as well as in Berlin, Los Angeles, Melbourne and Milan.

Imagine Peace

Imagine Peace is an ongoing art and peace project which goes back to the legendary initiative by Yoko Ono and her husband John Lennon of March 1969, when the artists protested against the Vietnam War with a “bed-in” at the Honeymoon Suite of Amsterdam’s Hilton Hotel. As a symbol of counterculture, their bed was surrounded by flowers, while hand-made protest placards reading “Hair Peace” and “Bed Peace” were attached to the hotel room’s windows behind them. During this nonviolent protest for peace, John Lennon wrote the world-famous song Give Peace a Chance.

Peace Activist Yoko Ono

The Japanese artist, singer, activist and filmmaker Yoko Ono (born in 1933) is among the most important exponents of the Fluxus movement. Prior to her wedding to the musician and composer John Lennon – a founding member of the world-famous band The Beatles – Ono had already made a name for herself in artistic circles in the early 1960s and became increasingly prominent as a peace and human rights activist. The exhibition Yoko Ono: Half-A-Wind Show, a retrospective of her artistic oeuvre, was shown in 2013 at the Kunsthalle Krems – curated by Hans-Peter Wipplinger – as well as at the Schirn Kunsthalle in Frankfurt am Main and in 2014 at the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao. In 2015, the Museum of Modern Art in New York presented the exhibition Yoko Ono: One Woman Show, 1960–1971.

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