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#smilesfilm is a worldwide online participatory artwork by Yoko Ono that reflects her pioneering vision of the power of mass participation.

Originally conceived in 1967 as a way of connecting people across the world, this 21st century crowdsourced artwork taps into the transformative potential of the smile as Yoko Ono invites everyone to upload images of their smiles to Instagram & Twitter, accompanied by the hashtag #smilesfilm, so that we may all enjoy our smiles, and the empowering sense of smiling together.

Rolling Stone: Do you think Yoko’s film of you smiling would work of it were just anyone smiling?

John: Yes, it works with somebody else smiling, but she went through all this. It originally started out that she wanted a million people all over the world to send in a snapshot of themselves smiling, and then it got down to lots of people smiling, and then maybe one or two and then me smiling as a symbol of today smiling-and that’s what I am, whatever that means. And so it’s me smiling, and that’s the hang-up, of course, because it’s me again. But they’ve got to see it someday-it’s only me. I don’t mind if people go to the film to see me smiling because it doesn’t matter, it’s not harmful. The idea of the film won’t really be dug for another fifty or a hundred years probably. That’s what it’s all about. I just happen to be that face.

Yoko: The films SMILE and TWO VIRGINS were done in a spirit of home movies. In both films, we were mainly concerned about the vibrations the films send out-the kind that was between us. Imagine a painting that smiles just once in a billion years. John’s ghostly smile in Film No. 5 might just communicate in a hundred years’ time, or maybe, the way things are rolling, it may communicate much earlier than that. I think all the doors are just ready to open now.

Yoko Ono by Matthu Placek 18 Feb 2013

Dear Friends,

I told you to smile when you are feeling down.
However, there are steps you should know.

First you go to the mirror and smile to the mirror in anyway you can.
You probably will not feel any different.
Smile a few times that way.

If that is not enough, smile a few times every morning when you see the mirror.
That won’t do much, either, right?
Because there is a way to smile and change not only your mood, but make your body healthy and young, and change your life for the better!

1) Smile just by twisting the ends of your mouth up.
That doesn’t get you anywhere, I bet.
But that’s a start.

2) Smile with your eyes and mouth.
That’s better.
Your smile will make somebody feel good, maybe.

Add a little giggle, and they will either think you’re crazy or like you for it.

3) If you really want to smile so it will make yourself feel good as well –
you have to smile from your heart and your lungs.

Don’t worry, if you are ending the smile with a quiet sound like ummm.

4) The next step will make you feel still better.
Smile from your solar plexus.
This has an added benefit of making your solar plexus healthier, and active.

5) The next step is to smile right down from your stomach.
When you do this, make sure to breathe deeply and pull your stomach muscles in as you smile.

6) The next step – yes, there are more steps! – you should smile from your knees.
Again, just pull your knees in – as you pull your stomach in.
At the same time you use your lungs, heart and solar plexus.

You’ll see that by then, you are smiling with your whole body.
You won’t forget to smile with your eyes and mouth at the same time.
It will happen anyway.

That’s how you will get the true benefit of smiling.
How about giving a smile to others?
Should we forget that?

Don’t worry.
They’ll notice your smile.
Only, this time, you’ll feel good, too.
Very, very good!

I love you!

Yoko Ono
24 July 2009

Dear Friends,

I just watched the #smilesfilm! It blew my mind! In fact, tears ran down my face and there was no stopping. I just didn’t know that there are still so many beautiful people on Earth, since i am reading the papers every day of murders, bombings, and major pollutions caused and hidden to us by corporations.

In fact, the film made me cry all the way. It’s so beautiful. And I feel I know each one of you. Yes! Didn’t we all meet sometime in our lives? We know each other right?

I say thank you, thank you, thank you, to all participants of this film. Thank you for having bothered to take your time to send your smile! This is a film that will give such a joy to the world, forever. Like the song, IMAGINE, this film should be put in a capsule and send it out to the stratosphere and to the Universe!

Meanwhile, we will add this film to IMAGINE PEACE TOWER, together with the wishes coming from all over the world.

Again, thank you!

I love you!!!

Yoko Ono

3 April 2010

Hans Ulrich Obrist: And that is the famous smile piece?

Yoko Ono: Yes.

HUO: It’s a very early piece.

YO: You know right now they have it on the internet. They have a website just called #smilesfilm and people are sending their smiles to it.

HUO: But what is so interesting is that I was always thinking of this smile theme of yours, because there is this great interview with John Lennon which I found on the internet, from Rolling Stone, and John was saying that basically you wanted to have one million smiling faces from all over the world. And in some kind of way I was thinking…

YO: Now it’s happening…

HUO: That you invented the internet 40 years before. Because that was 42 years ago on…

YO: And now they’re adding German smiles! Contemporary German smiles, on the second floor.

HUO: So basically the archive of smiles grows wherever you go, whenever you do a show. It’s a growing archive…

YO: Well I don’t have to even do a show. When you visit the website, you see that people send their smiles to it from all over the world. When I first thought about it I thought the concept is good, but its not interesting for me to just watch people smile, so I didn’t click into the smile website until about a year ago. Then I clicked in, and I kept looking at all these people smiling, and I started crying, you know, because right now this world is so desperate for a smile, and they were all sending in their smile, like this could be their last smile or something, and I just felt very touched by it.

HUO: It’s also like it’s a big planetary sculpture which could change the world, because with all these smiles you can make the world a better place.

YO: I know, isn’t that great? Just recently, I think about a year ago actually, I explained how to smile, not just with the mouth, not just with the mouth and eyes, but eventually with your whole body. It’s really good.

HUO: It’s a whole.

YO: It’s a very important one. I was talking about my experience, not being able to smile, because John passed away and I just looked at the mirror and I saw this face with the mouth kind of turning down, and I thought, this is not good. So I tried to smile with my mouth, and then with my mouth and eyes. Then one day I knew that I was smiling with my whole body.

HUO: I also love it when you say you should smile from your knees.

YO: Ah, yeah, yeah, isn’t that great?! So anyway, this is a very strong show for me in Berlin, the strongest in a way because all this stuff that’s happening in the gallery, and then in the end we end with a smile.

Working as an artist, film-maker, poet, musician, writer, performance artist and peace activist for six decades, Yoko Ono has influenced generations of artists and received numerous prestigious awards.

In her prolific career, she has embraced a wide range of media, defying traditional boundaries and creating new forms of artistic expression. Born in 1933 in Tokyo, she is a pioneer of conceptual art and her work has been presented internationally in major exhibitions and performances.

Find out more about Yoko Ono at IMAGINEPEACE.com