Performance

Screening and lecture performance “Letters to Jonas Mekas” at MACRO

On February 11, “Letters to Jonas Mekas. Hot afternoon with Autarkia and Syndicate”, a tribute to the great Lithuanian filmmaker and pioneer of avant-garde cinema, to whom “Images Are Real”, on show at Mattatoio Roma until 23 February 2023, comes to life in the MACRO – Museo d’Arte Contemporanea Roma spaces.

For the occasion, the curatorial duo Francesco Urbano Ragazzi invites the independent platforms Autarkia and Syndicate.

Led by JL Murtaugh, the two platforms gather a group of friends to celebrate the filmmaker’s powerful cultural legacy. Artists from the new Lithuanian scene pay tribute to their intellectual connection to Mekas and elaborate on a genre to which the artist has long been committed: epistolary and video-letter. In the spaces of the museum video works alternate with live interventions.

For more information on this event visit link here.

“Jonas Mekas Musical Milieu” concerts and events at the Lithuanian Museum of Theatre, Music, and Film

“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.

Still from film "Quartet Number 1" (1991) by Jonas Mekas

Jonas Mekas’ special program at Litauisches Kino Goes Berlin film festival

To honor Jonas Mekas’ memory, we present a special program, dedicated to the exceptional artist. Apart from the Jonas Mekas Retrospective: Short Films (1966-2002), it includes an audiovisual performance inspired by Mekas’ film “As I was Moving Ahead I saw brief Glimpses of Beauty” (2000), performed by Julius Zubavičius, and the talk “I Make Home Videos Therefore I Live”.

Artist Denisas Kolomyckis, will give a talk about Jonas Mekas, performances and documentation of processes, friends and practices that have followed through the last ten years of Jonas. Talk will be open for questions and possible discussions about Jonas Mekas‘ films together with the presentation of the current practices of Denisas. Artist will share his experience and stories on life in New York and works that have been highly influenced by Mekas.

More information available here.

The "491 Broadway Installation" at Galerie Krinzinger, Vienna, 2013. Courtesy of the Estate of Jonas Mekas.

A glimpse into the installations of Jonas Mekas at Jonas Mekas Studio

On the centennial anniversary of the birth of Jonas Mekas, the Monira Foundation presents a year-long celebration of the pioneering filmmaker’s works and life at Mana Contemporary’s Jersey City location.

September 11 afternoon will feature three installations by the late poet, filmmaker and artist, Jonas Mekas (1922-2019).

– “Lithuania and the Collapse of the USSR” (four-channel video installation, 2009);

– “Destruction Quartet” (four-channel video installation, 2006);

– “491 Broadway” (Sound installation with table and chairs, 2009).

More information on this event is available here.

“Jonas Mekas. 100 Years of Cinema, Arts, and Politics” at Cinema Arsenal

Jonas Mekas (1922 – 2019) – filmmaker, author, and curator – always said that his works were not political. However, often, the exact opposite was the case. His response to the horrors of the 20th century was to turn to the everyday in an artistic way. He sought an aesthetic form for it in his films, diaries and poems and ascribed it with a force of humanization. The eventful history of the past 100 years is reflected in his work.

On the 100th anniversary of Jonas Mekas’ birth, the program curated by Christoph Gnädig, Christian Hiller and Anne König addresses the political dimensions of his oeuvre. Panels with filmmakers, artists and like-minded peers explore Memories, Displacement, Counter-Culture, Cold and New Wars and the Politics of Everyday. In addition to the program in Cinema 1, political video works by Mekas will be installed in Cinema 2. The program will be expanded on the digital platform arsenal 3 with films by Chantal Akerman, Sergei Loznitsa, and Jonas Mekas. There will also be performative readings by Heike Geißler, Eglė Lukšaitė and Goda Palekaitė. Asia Bazdyrieva will from her Ukrainian war diary.

For more information visit the link here.

Poster by Lucie de Bréchard of the fashion collection "Turgus" by Vaida Voraitė

Fashion show of Vaida Voraitė’s new collection inspired by Jonas Mekas

On 25 June Vaida Voraitė, a designer from Biržai currently living and working in Berlin, will present her new clothing collection “Turgus” inspired by life and work of Jonas Mekas. The exhibition will focus on the collection, including linen fabrics made in Lithuania, masculinity and gender changes in society. The Biržai Central Market Square will become a professional catwalk that will not only be walked by professional models, but also by local people together with guests from abroad.

On 26 June Vaida Voraitė will invite you to visit the showroom at the “Portfolio Gallery” (Rotušės g. 12) in Biržai. The showroom will provide an opportunity to get a closer look to the newly launched collection, to talk to the designer and order the garment you want.

Live musical performance based on Jonas Mekas’ silent film “Mysteries” in Biržai

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.

Live musical performance based on Jonas Mekas’ silent film “Mysteries” in Kaunas

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: Jonas Mekas’ Music” cross-disciplinary musical event in Tel Aviv

“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.