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Openasia
2004 in Lido Di Venezia, Italy 2004
Yoko
Ono: (smiling) "Hello! I'm very happy to be here again, whenever
I come to Venice I feel as if.... something about it makes me feel like I came
home, and maybe I think, seriously, that in my past life, maybe I lived here.
I don't know, but the feeling is that old building, any old building and the water
going through it. This makes me feel very at home. That's it. Thank you for keeping
the beautiful city as it is. I hope the cities come to be like this for the longest
time. I know it's very difficult to do that, but... (she ends these words
smiling but changes to serious) I'm very concerned that some people don't care
about the culture and the civilization that human race has built, maybe in ten
thousand years or five thousand years, between that, and they like to destroy
it, and I feel very sad that our culture and civilization has been destroyed so
much by now."
OPENASIA and ONOCHORD
"This
project called Open Asia is such a beautiful project and is very meaningful because
it is already reaching out to Asia and artist to make it and it's a communication
of Asia, sort like allowing Asians to come and express themselves, and I think
it's very beautiful, and that's why I came all (2.26) to tell you that and share
these feelings with you and this time I'm doing this "Onochord" (She
shows the Onochord postcard and smiles). This is because I feel that now in this
world there is so little to love, because everybody is frightened, confused and
angry and so there is not very much love in the world. (She shows the little flashlight)
so I want to promote love and I thought of a morse code. A morse code is S.O.S
that kind of thing and I don't know how I would like to do it, not to say S.O.S,
but to say I love you to each other, so I brought this set twisted code and then
you think like C.O.D.E, like a message, and so Chord like in music ,so it's called
Onochord, C.H.O.R.D. I think it would be very nice...I think I brought about...
(she turns to the head of the press conference and asks him how many of these?...
Head of the press conference: four thousand). Four thousand! Yes four thousand!
(Smiling openly) I brought about four thousand of these, so I want to give up
away these little flashlights and you say I..(she flash one time)... Love...(she
flash two times) ...You...(she flashes three times while smiling), and
the reasons why it is that way like I is one, Love is two, You is three (and flashes
again), is because I wanted to make it very simple, so all of us do it. And tonight
about ten thirty I will be in San Marcos Square and anybody who wants could get
this. I think that we are giving some out now, right? Yes! (Some flashlights,
posters and postcards of Onochord and leaflets of Open Asia were given to the
journalists at the press conference) We can give this now to you if you want and
.., Oh we've already did!., so please hold on to it and at ten thirty, please
come to San Marcos Square, I'll be there and we would all say I love you to each
other (she smiles and send light flashes to the journalists. The Italian translator
interrupts her to make the Italian translation of all that Yoko has said. Yoko
looks at her while she translates with a smile and she seems to understand what
she says. ) Yoko: "Because now.... (smiling)
I'm sorry I didn't think in translating. I'll shorten up. Because now people are
just concentrating on fear, confusion and anger (and she turns with a smile to
the translator and invites her to make the translation. Up from here she'll do
it this way, but I'm going to forget about the translator). and therefore just
one moment in our lives tonight. I like... us to think about love instead of fear,
confusion and anger. And of course we should...if tonight you hold this Onochord
flashlight and... whenever you have a chance to send a message to anybody you
want. I would like to see a lighthouse making this Onochord 1,2,3 (and she moves
her open hand) whenever they want. I would like to see ships doing it. I would
like to see a building a whole building light up go 1,2,3 (and she snaps
her fingers) and make a message of love to the world. And I think that tonight
we should start to do this all of us. And I start that in Venice! Because this
is where my love is, well my love is in many places (I would like you could
see the smile and the expression she has rolling her eyes while saying this. She
smiles sweetly and shy and seems a little embarrased. Delicious Yoko!) , But this
one is very special and I like that year that I'm doing this in Venice in Italy,
because to me Italy is a country of emotion and Venice is epitomizing that. Because
love is a very old emotion, and I feel that this city expresses that old emotion.
Are there any questions?" (There is a little of reorganization
of the people around her at the table and she smiles and makes very funny expressions
with hands and face while waiting for the questions) Question:
(I can't hear it. The tape sound is of a very poor quality and the journalist
seems to be very far from the camera and I'm not that good at English.) Yoko:
"John and I ... (She turns to the translator and asks her if she is going
to translate the question of the journalist. The translator translates the question,
but again the sound has disappeared) Well I don't know that... in a very magical
straight way John and I met in London and from then on we stood for peace and
love. And when I do this kind of event. Well it is... I was inspired to do, but
still I think that I'm still with John in spirit."
Nutopia
(Question
about Nutopia that I can't hear) Yoko: "John
and I created the country called Nutopia, not Utopia, because there was utopia
as a concept already and we wanted to create a new concept, so we just add N on
it Nutopia, and is a country, well that is a concept of country and we all are
citiziens of that country." "And in my apartment
in Dakota, Dakota Building, John said OK, we put a little plaque that says Nutopian
Embassy, so in the back door, in the kitchen door it says Nutopian Embassy, (and
laughs) even now we have that." (Question by
a journalist who tells her in Italian that he doesn't believe in that Nutopia
and reminds her of the recent killing of children at a school in Chechenia) Yoko:
(with a sad and serious face) "Nutopia exists!... (and she turns to
the translator and says to her) I think that it is so very important. You have
to translate all what I'm saying. (and returns to look to the journalist
to answer the question) Nutopia exists into our minds and because of that some
people want to rebel against it. The reason some want to rebel against it is a
good proof that it exists." (and she repeats) "The
reason that people want to rebel against it it's a good proof that Nutopia exists.
I think that it was a terrible thing what happened in Chechenia, but we have to
still keep our hopes, and instead of giving up, we have to keep on sending the
message of love to each other." (and she starts again sending messages of
"I. love.. you..." with the flashlight) "Ah
by the way! You say that I am the ambassador peace, we are all ambassadors of
peace, you are too. Everybody in this room is ambassadors of peace."
"Love
is giving, with joy"
"Just the fact that we
are not participating in the war, the fact that we are here, and we are what we
are, makes that we are in the peace industry, all of us." (People
applause) (I can't hear the question) Yoko:
"I wanted to say something to you (and looks at the one who made the question
about Chechenia and said he didn't believe in Nutopia), that when I say about
the peace ambassadors, and that we should not lose this hope. I'm not saying as
an optimistic person, a simple optimistic person, I'm saying it because of the
fact (with watery eyes) that my husband was killed by the same violence that the
Chechenia children suffered." (Yoko is on the edge of tears) Question:
For you, what is love? Yoko: "Love is giving,
with joy." (Yoko smiles) (Applauses) (Question that
I can't hear) Yoko: "I think it's very dangerous
to determine that we will never have a totally peaceful world. There would always
be violent people? I don't believe in that. By now we can say that there is always
old age, there is always education, that we die... Even that may be changed, and
we know that. This is a very interesting time in our life that on one hand it
seems that you can destroy the whole planet and on the other hand it seems like
we can be ridden and total free of all the suffering that we have. So it depends
on us . We have the choice. We can destroy ourselves, or we can not only survive
and free ourselves but maybe do something fantastic for the Universe." (I
can't hear the question) Yoko: "I'm not totally
overjoyed about life at this point, but I'm still sharing hope for myself and
for my friends and for the world. Because I still feel that we have the choice.
We are gonna make that choice. We have to remember that we are all together anyway.
It's the boat which if the world sinks, we all sink together. When on earth, on
the planet even when we are in our dream, our hearts are beating together in unison.
Have you realized that?" Question in Italian:
Have you forgiven your husband's assassin? Yoko: "One:
I'd like to keep something private. John and I used to say that our apartment
the Dakota is a conceptual monastry, just for the two of us. And because when
we go out of Dakota, we get so many people communicating with us, so it's very
important that we had silence and quietness and my apartment is a very small space
compared to the world, and I need that for my peace of mind." (I
can't hear the question) Yoko: "There's always
a rumour that I'm buying a house. " Journalist in
English: "No , no it's not any house, it was yours, the one you were
born. (There are some rumours and discussions in the room among the journalists
that seems to recriminate something to the one that has made the question and
Yoko looks at them with a certain curiosity for knowing what's happening in the
room and she turns to the man at her left and to the translator and says "That's
why I have my apartment." (and laughs openly) (I can't
hear the question) Yoko: "We all have our closets
and I have my very unique situation, and I' m an artist so that I'm used to a
situation to be most creative in that city." (I can't
hear the question) Yoko: "The only thing I'm
doing about Africa... The two things I'm doing... One: is every year, is a John
Lennon Tribute concert in Japan and I go there and promote the concert and participate
in it. And the money that is raised with that concert goes to creating schools
in Africa for African children. We have built 20 schools already (smiles openly)
because it's very cheap to build schools there, and we are thinking, hoping
that we can make a hundred schools. That's one, the other one is that there's
gonna be a CD (Note by the transcriptor: Last year they released the CD
"Songs for Life" that included "Hard Times Are Over" and "Power
to the People") that comes out to raise money for AIDS in Africa, and there's
one of my songs in it called "I didn't know". It is actually a love
song and I didn't know that you are suffering any by knew it over that come so
quickly to you, but we are using it as "I didn't know" the problem in
Africa of AIDS and I want to come so quickly to you. It's a love song to AIDS
patients, patients in Africa, and I thought oh it's very nice. When I wrote it,
it was just a love song, but now we are using it to reach to african AIDS patients.
Of course we would have to be to the doctors to actually find a cure for AIDS
and take care of the AIDS patients in a typical sense, but you can reach out to
them with love and that's what we are doing." ( I can't
hear the question)
Join the peace industry
Yoko:
"I came to say this. I want to say this, that I have said many times probably:
but the world is divided in two industries: One is the war industry and the other
is the peace industry. And the people in the war industry they are totally together.
They don't have to talk to each other even, they know exactly what they want to
do. They wanna go out there, kill and make money. But the people in the peace
industry, which are us, (and points with her hand to the whole room) we are so
idealistic that each one of us criticize the other peace person in the peace industry. And
we are always just arguing and we are wasting our energies doing that, so let's
just forgive each other and see that we are in the peace industry and that's all
that counts. Even if you are not marching for peace just be yourself, being a
florist, being a merchant, being a taylor, anything. That way you're conributing
to the peace industry." (Question: In which way we can
contribute to that?) Yoko: "You know, you should
be kind to each other, you should come together, hug each other, love each other,
express our love to each other and we should make it work. We should finally create
a world that is a totally an earth for us. So let's do it!" (Yoko smiles) "OK
That's it!" (A journalist shouts: ONE MORE QUESTION!,
but I can't hear the question) Yoko: "I think
that you are too much of a critic (Yoko smiles). I am not, I'm just a human being."  more
information
Watch
ONOCHORD documentary by Yoko Ono
Read Yoko Ono's
ONOCHORD instruction |
onochord
venice 2004 
