YOKO ONO'S WISH TREE for GETAFE (MADRID) TO END DOMESTIC VIOLENCE. ÁRBOL DE LOS DESEOS DE YOKO ONO para GETAFE (MADRID) CONTRA LA VIOLENCIA DE GÉNERO
(In Spanish at the bottom)
Yesterday Getafe, a working class populated city at the South of Madrid, wanted to pay homage to the victims of domestic violence and prepared several acts during the whole evening and night to people aware about this social problem and as a way of telling to the victims that they are not forgotten.
Yoko Ono’s Wish Tree, a huge Cedar tree, was placed in the afternoon by a Lorry mounted crane in the main square of the city calling the attention of the old people there walking and chatting under a friendly winter sun.
As I put the tag with Yoko’s wish in the tree to take a photo, they came around and one of them asked me with an ironic smile “Are you selling this tree? Is the price written in the tag? I laughed for his humorous way of approaching me, and his funny way of asking without asking, that it was a pleasure for me telling them about the Wish Tree and the International Day for the elimination of violence against women.
They started to talk about women in Getafe killed by their husbands and asked to participate. Nothing was prepared yet, and the whole thing was supposed to start at 5 p.m., but I forgot all protocol and provided them some tags and pens still in the bags and boxes and they were the first ones to tie wishes to the tree.
That square is the main witness of the energy of the city and of all the movements of its people during the whole journey, because when old people returned to their houses about 3p.m. children started to flow from the surrounding streets. They were very interested about the whole thing.
Pens and tags seemed to fly through the table we had set for people to write their wishes. They asked their parents to help them to tie their wishes and encourage them to write their own. It was amazing seeing them running from the table to the tree again and again and again with that special and beautiful energy children have, calling their friends in the distance to come and write wishes.
At 5 p.m. people started to build a path of light leading to the Wish Tree and in the stages around the square started some circus, dance, theatre and music performances, all of them related to the issue of domestic violence.
The major of the city tied to the Wish Tree the message sent by Yoko Ono to erase domestic violence and the women of Getafe read a manifesto against domestic violence. The most moving moment of the whole evening was when a very young girl read a letter to her mother killed for her father last year in Getafe.
The path of light to the Wish Tree grew and grew and people placed candles at its feet as a symbol of the presence of the 53 women victims of domestic violence in Spain last year.
Jorge Artajo
Installation organiser
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Message from Yoko Ono:
Hi, Jorge!
I see that you are working, as usual.
We are at the point where we can end all violence very soon, by the effort of people like you.
Thank you.
yoko
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
We have just placed the WISH TREE in Getafe (Madrid). People will start tying wishes to erase domestic violence at 5 p.m (Madrid time) / 11 a.m (New York time) and will end at 9 p.m.(Madrid time) / 3 a.m. (New York time).
You can follow the event in real time in Twitter twitter.com/#!/gtfvisibles twitter.com/#!/gtfvisibles
We will upload photos of the people once they put their wishes in the tree.
The tree is a Cedrus (common name Cedar), an evergreen mystical tree with scented wood that I chose it because of its beauty and because I felt it as a shelter for victims of violence and a healing place for tormented souls.
Acabamos de colocar en Getafe el ÁRBOL DE LOS DESEOS contra la violencia de género,y hemos colgado el mensaje que envió Yoko Ono expresamente para esta ocasión:
Borremos la violencia doméstica en este planeta!
Ama, ten esperanza, sueña y borra
Amor,
Yoko 2011
El acto empezará a las 5 de la tarde y concluirá a la 9 de la noche. Puede seguirse casi en directo en Twitter twitter.com/#!/gtfvisibles twitter.com/#!/gtfvisibles
Vamos a ir colgando fotos de los eventos minuto aminuto durante toda la jornada.
El árbol es un Cedro (Cedrus) un árbol de hoja peremne y madera olorosa considerado místico que puede llegara vivir hasta dos mil años y que escogí por su belleza y porque lo vi como un refugio para las víctimas de la violencia doméstica y un lugar donde las almas atormentadas pueden llegar a encontrar la paz.
Animaos a venir.
YOKO ONO'S WISH TREE for GETAFE (MADRID) TO END DOMESTIC VIOLENCE. ÁRBOL DE LOS DESEOS DE YOKO ONO para GETAFE (MADRID) CONTRA LA VIOLENCIA DE GÉNERO
(In Spanish at the bottom)
Yesterday Getafe, a working class populated city at the South of Madrid, wanted to pay homage to the victims of domestic violence and prepared several acts during the whole evening and night to people aware about this social problem and as a way of telling to the victims that they are not forgotten.
Yoko Ono’s Wish Tree, a huge Cedar tree, was placed in the afternoon by a Lorry mounted crane in the main square of the city calling the attention of the old people there walking and chatting under a friendly winter sun.
As I put the tag with Yoko’s wish in the tree to take a photo, they came around and one of them asked me with an ironic smile “Are you selling this tree? Is the price written in the tag? I laughed for his humorous way of approaching me, and his funny way of asking without asking, that it was a pleasure for me telling them about the Wish Tree and the International Day for the elimination of violence against women.
They started to talk about women in Getafe killed by their husbands and asked to participate. Nothing was prepared yet, and the whole thing was supposed to start at 5 p.m., but I forgot all protocol and provided them some tags and pens still in the bags and boxes and they were the first ones to tie wishes to the tree.
That square is the main witness of the energy of the city and of all the movements of its people during the whole journey, because when old people returned to their houses about 3p.m. children started to flow from the surrounding streets. They were very interested about the whole thing.
Pens and tags seemed to fly through the table we had set for people to write their wishes. They asked their parents to help them to tie their wishes and encourage them to write their own. It was amazing seeing them running from the table to the tree again and again and again with that special and beautiful energy children have, calling their friends in the distance to come and write wishes.
At 5 p.m. people started to build a path of light leading to the Wish Tree and in the stages around the square started some circus, dance, theatre and music performances, all of them related to the issue of domestic violence.
The major of the city tied to the Wish Tree the message sent by Yoko Ono to erase domestic violence and the women of Getafe read a manifesto against domestic violence. The most moving moment of the whole evening was when a very young girl read a letter to her mother killed for her father last year in Getafe.
The path of light to the Wish Tree grew and grew and people placed candles at its feet as a symbol of the presence of the 53 women victims of domestic violence in Spain last year.
Jorge Artajo
Installation organiser
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Message from Yoko Ono:
Hi, Jorge!
I see that you are working, as usual.
We are at the point where we can end all violence very soon, by the effort of people like you.
Thank you.
yoko
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
We have just placed the WISH TREE in Getafe (Madrid). People will start tying wishes to erase domestic violence at 5 p.m (Madrid time) / 11 a.m (New York time) and will end at 9 p.m.(Madrid time) / 3 a.m. (New York time).
You can follow the event in real time in Twitter twitter.com/#!/gtfvisibles twitter.com/#!/gtfvisibles
We will upload photos of the people once they put their wishes in the tree.
The tree is a Cedrus (common name Cedar), an evergreen mystical tree with scented wood that I chose it because of its beauty and because I felt it as a shelter for victims of violence and a healing place for tormented souls.
Acabamos de colocar en Getafe el ÁRBOL DE LOS DESEOS contra la violencia de género,y hemos colgado el mensaje que envió Yoko Ono expresamente para esta ocasión:
Borremos la violencia doméstica en este planeta!
Ama, ten esperanza, sueña y borra
Amor,
Yoko 2011
El acto empezará a las 5 de la tarde y concluirá a la 9 de la noche. Puede seguirse casi en directo en Twitter twitter.com/#!/gtfvisibles twitter.com/#!/gtfvisibles
Vamos a ir colgando fotos de los eventos minuto aminuto durante toda la jornada.
El árbol es un Cedro (Cedrus) un árbol de hoja peremne y madera olorosa considerado místico que puede llegara vivir hasta dos mil años y que escogí por su belleza y porque lo vi como un refugio para las víctimas de la violencia doméstica y un lugar donde las almas atormentadas pueden llegar a encontrar la paz.
Animaos a venir.