„Keep Singing. In Memoriam Jonas Mekas”, a festival, dedicated to Jonas Mekas, one of Lithuania’s most prominent artists, will take place in Vilnius from 14-17 December. The festival, consisting of two parts – a photo exhibition and a series of improvisational music, dance and poetry performances – will invite all Vilnius residents to remember the great Lithuanian artist.
Jonas Mekas Visual Arts Centre (JMVMC) together with percussionist and good friend of Jonas Mekas, Dalius Naujokaitis-Naujo, and talented Lithuanian and foreign musicians invite everyone to take part in the events of the festival to remember and thank the great Jonas Mekas for his immense contribution to our culture, freedom and open worldview. The festival will be full of music, fun, sound and entertainment. Just the way Jonas Mekas liked it. Keep Singing!
14 December, 18:00, the opening of the exhibition “Jonas Mekas. ALBUM” at Jonas Mekas Visual Arts Centre. Curator – Sebastian Mekas.
On 15-17 December from 19:30, the festival „Keep Singing. In Memoriam Jonas Mekas” will take place at The House of Signatories.
“Jonas Mekas Musical Milieu” – a series of concerts of events, organized by the Lithuanian Museum of Theatre, Music, and Film will take place between the 9th and 12th of November. The series delves into little-explored musicality and musical contexts of the late filmmaker, writer, and one of the most important Lithuanian émigré artists Jonas Mekas.
It was inspired by a text written in 2019 by the curator of the project Edvardas Šumila, published in the Lithuanian Music Link journal titled “New York Scenes and Echoes from Lithuania: Jonas Mekas’ Musical Milieu,” overviewing the musicality of Jonas Mekas, and his connections with the New York avant-garde, experimental, and rock music practitioners, and sharing the insights of his friends.
Throughout the four days of events, the visitors will have a chance to experience Jonas Mekas’ sound installation “To Petrarca, Who Walked Over the Hills of Provence” (2003), which has been never exhibited in Lithuania before.
The four concerts in the series will delve into different aspects of Jonas Mekas and his musical milieu and pieces inspired by his creative work.
More information and a full programme can be found here.
Musical performance for chamber ensemble, electronics and voice recording of Jonas Mekas. This performance is an arrangement of a voice recording of Lithuanian-American experimental filmmaker Jonas Mekas. As a basis for this music the voice-over from Mekas’ 1972 film “Reminiscences of a Journey to Lithuania” was used. The film tells the story of Mekas’ short return to his native village in Lithuania after 27 years of absence and narrates the memories and impressions in the author’s own voice.
Arturas Bumšteinas is Lithuanian sound artist and interdisciplinary composer working in various ways of materializing the sonic domain, as well as was resident at the Camargo Foundation.
On the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the birth of Jonas Mekas, the newly restored version of the 4-hour feature film “As I was moving ahead occasionally I saw brief glimpses of beauty” presented in 2000 at the London Film Festival will be presented, reconstructing the Lithuanian director, poet and artist’s filmic activity of over 30 years.
The screening is introduced by Andrea Lissoni, curator of the “Moving Images” project for NU.
The concert-performance “Mysteries” will take place in Kaunas Town Hall square and, two days later, June 24th, in the territory of the Evangelical Reformed Church of Biržai. The church is related to Jonas Mekas, since his uncle Povilas Jašinskas served there as a priest, and both, Jonas and his brother Adolfas, resided in the attic of its clergy house. Fortunately, the building remains to this day.
Jonas Mekas’ film “Mysteries”, which has never been screened in Europe before, will be performed live by the band “Rocket Sci & Friends”. Jonas Mekas’ friends from America, with whom he used to perform together, are coming to Biržai: Dalius Naujokaitis, Kenny Wollesen, Tony Scherr, Jonathon Haffner, William Shore. They are joined by Mekas’ Italian friend Giuseppe Zevola and Lithuanian Eugenijus Varkalis.
After the performance, the musicians will leave the premises of the event and continue to play in the nearby streets. The event combines live sound, cinema, improvisation and street art.
The performance will take place in Kaunas Town Hall square and, two days later, June 24th, in the territory of the Evangelical Reformed Church of Biržai. After the film performance, the musicians will leave the premises of the event and continue to play in the nearby streets.
Jonas Mekas’ film “Mysteries”, which has never been screened in Europe before, will be performed live by the band “Rocket Sci & Friends”. Jonas Mekas’ friends from America, with whom he used to perform together, are coming to Kaunas: Dalius Naujokaitis, Kenny Wollesen, Tony Scherr, Jonathon Haffner, William Shore. They are joined by Mekas’ Italian friend Giuseppe Zevola and Lithuanian Eugenijus Varkalis.
After the performance, the musicians will leave the premises of the event and continue to play in the nearby streets. The event combines live sound, cinema, improvisation and street art.
“Accidental Poems” is an interdisciplinary music festival, focusing on the artistic heritage of the director and poet Jonas Mekas. Mekas’ movie diaries are considered cornerstones in the history of avant-garde cinema, an artistic practice that made him a key figure in the experimental art scene of New York since the 60s. Though he was not a musician, sound and music played an important role in his movies and within the cultural milieu created around him. “Accidental Poems” is not trying to represent Mekas’ musical work, as such, but to create a happening through the use of his own archival materials, and musical works that relate to him in a direct or imagined way.
The Festival dates are 7-9.12, including three events:
Archival Encounters – Chamber concert | Wednesday 7.12, 20:00 at Rubin Museum. A program of musical compositions that were inspired by Jonas Mekas or by using his poems, selected from the archives of the two music centers.
Temporary Soundtracks – Cross-disciplinary Musical event | Thursday 8.12, 18:00-23:00 at Liebling House. An evening of original audio-visual performances & installations created especially for this evening in response to archival footage of Jonas Mekas.
Artmachines: Thinking with Jonas Mekas’ Practice – Symposium & Workshop | Friday 9.12, 10:00-14:00 at Liebling House.
Please visit this link for more information (in Hebrew) on this programme.
