Imagine Peace Tower

Yoko Ono created Imagine Peace Tower as a beacon for world peace and dedicated it to John Lennon. It was unveiled on Viðey on 9 October 2007, what would have been Lennon's 67th birthday. The work also carries forward Ono's 1965 conceptual piece Light House, which imagined a structure made from light rather than conventional walls.

The memorial is not only about the artist and musician. It connects to Ono's participatory Wish Tree works, where people write wishes for peace. Collected wishes give the tower a shared human story rather than leaving it as a distant beam on the Reykjavík skyline.

In daylight, the artwork is a low wishing well surrounded by an Icelandic stone platform.

At the center is a cylindrical white wishing well, 4 metres across and 2 metres high, engraved with Imagine Peace in 24 languages. It stands on a circular 17-metre platform faced with three types of Icelandic stone. Fifteen light rays rise from the well and combine into one strong column.

The light runs on geothermal electricity. This gives the work a direct connection to Iceland's energy system while keeping the physical structure low and simple.

After dark, the light column gives the quiet platform its full scale.

In daylight, the well and patterned stone platform reward a closer look, but they can feel understated. After dark, the column becomes visible across the bay and the open island setting adds wind, water, and distance to the work. The official calendar confirms lighting from 9 October to 8 December 2026 and again from 21 to 31 December 2026. The annual pattern also includes Yoko Ono's birthday and a week around the spring equinox, but confirm the current calendar before visiting.

A trip to Viðey gives the complete artwork and island context. Seeing the beam from Reykjavík Harbour or near Sun Voyager is easier, but the physical wishing well is then out of reach.

Viðey also holds historic buildings, walking paths, and Richard Serra's Áfangar sculpture, so the island has meaning beyond the beam. Back in the city, Ásmundarsafn offers another outdoor-and-indoor sculpture setting, while Höfði adds modern diplomatic history along the same waterfront side of Reykjavík.