Play It By Trust aka White Chess Set

The Museum of Modern Art, New York, the USA.

Painted bronze.

The installation looks like an ordinary chessboard, but all the pieces are of the same colour – white. A chess game lasts until its participant becomes unable to distinguish their chessmen from the chessmen of their opponent; it is difficult to do this since they are of the same colour. The installation-performance was based on the teachings of Buddhism, which preaches a solution to the conflict by understanding and accepting an opponent and demonstrates the anti-war beliefs of Yoko Ono. As Europeans were interested in everything eastern in the 60s, this work had the desired effect and made people think that it is worth not dividing the world into black and white, friends and enemies, but listening more carefully to each other.