Yoko Ono's 'Ex It' installation of 100 coffins arrives at Palazzo della Ragione in Padua

Yoko Ono's installation 'Ex It', featuring 100 wooden coffins of varying sizes from which olive trees sprout, has been installed at Palazzo della Ragione in Padua. The work, which originated from Ono's 1997 visit to the same hall—a former execution site—will be open to the public from September 7, 2024, until February 2025. The exhibition is dedicated to the memory of curator Paolo De Grandis, who died in May 2024 and had long collaborated with Ono. Curated by Jon Hendricks, a longtime friend of the artist, the installation is free but requires payment of the palace's admission fee. Ono, now 91, received the Golden Lion for lifetime achievement at the 2009 Venice Biennale. The work is described by Padua's culture councillor Andrea Colasio as a meaningful convergence of contemporary art with the city's civic monument, which features UNESCO-listed frescoes.