Yoko Ono transforms a Serbian riverboat into a war memorial at Exit Festival 2019

Artist and activist Yoko Ono has unveiled a new art installation commemorating the horrors of the First World War at the heart of Serbia’s EXIT music festival.

Titled One Day…, the piece was created from a traditional Serbian chaika boat, once used to patrol the country’s maritime borders from the threat of the Ottoman Empire.

It was officially unveiled on 28 June 2019, marking 100 years since the signing of the Treaty of Versailles — officially ending the First World War. A local children’s choir revealed the artwork while singing John Lennon’s iconic peace anthem, Imagine.

Ono hopes that the simple and traditional Serbian vessel will resonate across borders, symbolising not only wars on the Danube and Sava rivers, but also the thousands of people around the world fleeing war by boat — including refugees travelling to Europe over the Mediterranean Sea.

EXIT’s founder Dušan Kovačević said that the work, which forms an early part of Novi Sad’s programme as European Capital of Culture 2021, matched the festival’s own values. “EXIT was the first mass event to gather the young people of ex-Yugoslavia in one place after the wars of the 90s,” he said. “Petrovaradin Fortress became the Fortress of Peace. It is my exceptional pleasure that one of the most influential women of modern times recognised our social activism and decided to join us in such a significant project.”