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.
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.
Experimental poetry translation workshop to translate Jonas Mekas’ poetry into French, public poetry readings and discussions, musical evenings, followed by the publication at the end of the project.
Participants: Stéphane Bouquet (writer, poet and translator, scriptwriter and film critic), Jean-Baptiste Cabaud (poet and translator), Roxana Hashemi (poet and translator), Anne Portugal (poet and translator), Ainis Selena (translator), Marielle Vitureau (author, translator, correspondent for Radio France Internationale and Courrier international in the Baltic States).
On 17 September, 15:30 there will be a public presentation of the “Translating Mekas” project and bilingual reading at the Centre international de poésie, Marseille.
On 18 September, 17:00 there will be an open-air bilingual reading of the first translated poems at the Camargo Foundation, Cassis.
On 18 September, 18:30 there will be a concert “More music for Jonas” by Arturas Bumšteinas with the ensemble C. Barré at the Camargo Foundation, Cassis.
“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.
