MUNICH, GERMANY.- Yoko Ono, widow of pop star John Lennon, arrives with a torch to a press conference at he "Haus der Kunst" museum in the southern town of Munich. Yoko Ono takes part in the performance "utopia station" and will write the words "I love you" in the evening sky of Munich. For centuries utopia has been the commonly accepted figure for the best of all possible worlds. Lately it has become a mobile figure. Some will find it strange that this idea, burdened by a long history and many fixed ideologies, has loosened up to become a catalyst.
Do not confuse utopia station with utopia itself. Utopia station is only a way-station, a place to stop, to look, to unleash the catalyst, to talk and refresh the route to a better life. This utopia station follows from several others organized by Molly Nesbit, Hans Ulrich Obrist and Rirkrit Tiravanija. Some of these stations have been gatherings, some of them taken the form of virtual sites, some of them involve exhibitions. over two hundred artists, architects, writers, musicians, and performers are contributing to the definition of utopia station, their particular contributions changing as the arc of the project pushes onward and out.
The best-known utopia station was the first large exhibition, organized for the Venice biennale in 2003. Before it had closed, an exhibition of the utopia station poster project opened at the Haus der Hunst in Munich in september 2003. This was understood at the time to be the prelude to a new utopia station designed to occupy the Haus der Kunsts former ehrenhalle. One year later, the new utopia station in Munich has become a reality.
