Published: 11 November, 2009, 17:58
Edited: 11 November, 2009, 18:24
Moscow’s Museum of Modern Art is presenting the exhibition “Honeymoon event. 902. 1969. Amsterdam” which features previously unseen photos of John Lennon and Yoko Ono’s well-known “Bed-Ins for Peace”.
Back in 1969, newly-married celebrity couple – John Lennon and Yoko Ono – decided to turn the last week of their honeymoon into a protest action against the Vietnam War and for peace in the world. The couple stayed in Room 902 of the Hilton hotel in Amsterdam speaking to nobody and seeing no one.
However, few people know that throughout most of that week, Nico Koster – a young photo-correspondent of major Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf – saw the couple in their room and made a series of “friendly and peaceful” shots. Later the same year, De Telegraaf published just one photo, which became famous. The other photographs of the series were considered lost, but recently they were found by the photographer’s daughter Nicole in an envelope with her childhood drawings. They were displayed for the first time in March 2009 in Amsterdam.
The exhibition will take place in Moscow’s MOMA on Petrovka street and will also present a multimedia installation which will reflect other significant political, cultural, economic, and sports events of 1969.
Now that the exhibition has come to Moscow, the photographer himself also decided to visit and continue the theme of “Room 902” with a new shoot. Russian politician Irina Khakamada and artist Sergey “Africa” Bougayev will be posing for this project in room 902 of Moscow’s Hilton. The results will be shown in the capital’s Ravenscourt Gallery starting from November 17.
Both projects will be on until November 29.