Simone Forti Talks Yoko Ono, Dance, and Aging in Never-Before-Published Interview

In the 1960s, two influential artists, Simone Forti and Yoko Ono, had numerous shared experiences due to their close proximity in the artistic community. Both women were transcultural migrants who faced discrimination based on their identities. Forti, of Jewish descent, left Italy due to Mussolini's Racial Laws, while Ono, a Japanese woman, was often exoticized and vilified.

As cross-disciplinary innovators, both artists pushed the boundaries of sound, drawing, poetry, participation, movement, new media, and sculpture. They frequently used touch as a mode of connection and incorporated everyday objects in their work.

Forti and Ono's paths crossed while they were both living in New York. Ono lived in a loft known as the Chambers Street Loft, where she welcomed various artists to use the space for their work. Forti, who had been aware of Ono's presence in the artistic community since around 1960, occasionally worked in the loft alongside other artists such as La Monte Young, Trisha Brown, Steve Paxton, and Bob Morris. Forti's Five Dance Constructions and Some Other Things premiered in Ono's loft in the same year.

In a never-before-published interview, Forti reminisced about her first encounter with Ono. She believed she heard Ono's name around 1960 and later found out that Ono was married to Toshi Ichiyanagi. Forti described Ono's loft as a large, raw rectangular space with a rough wood floor and windows at one end. The loft was initially unadorned, with the walls and floor left as they had been found during decades of industrial use.

The entrance was along one of the longer walls, closer to the windows than the deeper end of the space. Forti shared that she frequently saw other artists, like Jackson Mac Low, Henry Flint, and Bob Morris, in Ono's loft, as well as La Monte Young. However, she did not recall any conceptual or imagistic theater (happenings) artists visiting the loft regularly.