Yoko Ono seen like never before in Spain: this will be the largest exhibition of Lennon's widow at the MUSAC.

The annual conceptual art event kicks off in León : MUSAC will open the exhibition Yoko Ono : Insound and Instructure on November 8th , the largest exhibition in Spain featuring the Japanese artist, with more than 70 works spanning six decades of her career .

The exhibition will cover 1,700 square meters and highlights Ono's influence on performance , experimental film , music , and peace activism . The title refers to the concert and exhibition she gave in Kyoto on July 20, 1964, and to the way the artist combines sound and instruction in her practice.

Curated by Jon Hendricks, Connor Monahan and Álvaro Rodríguez Fominaya, the exhibition will be on view until May 17, 2026. It arrives in León at a time of renewed international recognition, following recent retrospectives at Tate Modern , Neue Nationalgalerie and the MCA in Chicago.

Works, actions and cinema: a living journey

The MUSAC will bring together pieces that trace the full arc of Ono's work , from the 1960s to the present day , using diverse techniques, all related to contemporary art : installation, performance , film, music, painting, and photography. The audience's involvement will be the guiding thread of the visit.

The itinerary includes iconic works such as Cut Piece (1964), Voice Piece for Soprano (1961) or Draw Circle Painting (1964), works that place the viewer at the center of the artistic gesture and give priority to the idea over the object .

The participatory chapter is reinforced with experiences such as A-MAZE (1971), a walkable labyrinth, and EN TRANCE (1990), an architectural structure that introduces notions of transformation and play and functions as a symbolic threshold of the exhibition narrative.

Along with historical landmarks, the exhibition includes recent projects that reaffirm the artist's pacifist approach: Doors (2011) and Invisible Flags (2015). There will also be a selection of films—some made with John Lennon —such as Rape (1968), Fly (1970/71), and Freedom (1970).

Born in Tokyo in 1933 , Ono was raised between Japan and the United States. She studied philosophy at Gakushūin University (she was the first woman admitted to the program) before settling in New York to study at Sarah Lawrence College . In the mid-1950s, she came into contact with John Cage, La Monte Young, and avant-garde music , and began to formulate her event scores and instructions.

In his loft on Chambers Street, he organized concerts and performances with La Monte Young, and presented his Instruction Paintings at the AG Gallery . Back in Tokyo, he performed at the Sogetsu Art Center , published Grapefruit (1964), and performed Cut Piece and Bag Piece at the Insound and Instructure concert in Kyoto.

Invited to the Destruction in Art Symposium in London (1966), she exhibited at the Indica Gallery and the Lisson Gallery , where she showed pieces such as White Chess Set , Apple and Half-A-Room , and met John Lennon. In 1969 , they married in Gibraltar and starred in the Bed-In for Peace and the WAR IS OVER! (If you want it) campaign, taking their activism to an international scale.

The exhibition seeks to explain how the artist combines sound and instruction in her work.

Following his first museum retrospective ( This Is Not Here , 1971), he has maintained an intense output in art , film, and music . He erected the Imagine Peace Tower in Reykjavik (2007) and received the Golden Lion for lifetime achievement (2009). His work has continued to be reviewed at major institutions, including MoMA, Tate Modern (2024), and Neue Nationalgalerie (2025).