| AP
/ Yoko Ono's Freight Train (August 25th 2000)
"Yoko
Ono says her latest work of art, a freight car bored through with hundreds of
holes and illuminated from inside was inspired by the deaths of 18 Mexicans in
1987 who perished in a sealed freight car trying to enter the United States illegally.
Ono titled it simply Freight Train and said she chose the rail car as a symbol
of human suffering during the "millennium of violence'' that just ended —
but that she intended no specific reference to the Holocaust. Freight Train is
a reminder of the violence and pain which people all over the world are suffering
and, I hope, an inspiration to resist it,'' Ono said during Thursday's unveiling.
The installation is displayed on a lot adjoining the former East German parliament
building through Oct. 1. It will be moved to Detroit next."
Yoko
about Berlin + Berlin about Yoko
"Every
time I come to Berlin, I feel good and energized," said Yoko Ono on Friday
in Berlin. "This installation in Berlin has a special meaning for John and
me." (Reuters) "I like Berlin, and the city was
okay with my work of art. I hope this train will travel to many countries."
(AP) "Spectacular and really worth seeing", wrote
one German newspaper of Freight Train, but there has also been other newspapers
which have been a bit puzzled why Yoko Ono would exhibit such a work in Berlin,
and why the bullet holes. Freight Train was inspired by the
violence of the world, but there's also a more personal point. According to Die
Welt, Yoko Ono said at the press conference: "My husband was a victim. My
heart was full of holes." For Yoko Ono Freight Train is "a work of atonement
for the injustice and pain we've experienced in this century, expressing resistance,
healing and hope." The installation is not only a memorial for all the injustice
in the 20th century, but also a manifest of resistance, healing and hope for the
future.
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