FIRST TIME IN THE CZECH REPUBLIC - RETROSPECTIVE OF JONAS MEKAS‘ ART
On January 23 DOX Centre for Contemporary Arts in Prague opened an exhibition of the Lithuanian avant-garde filmmaker, poet, film critic, curator of the arts, and philosopher from New York – the 90-year-old living legend, Jonas Mekas. Titled "…As I am moving… glimpses of the past linger…," the exhibition will begin just a few weeks after the works of Mekas traveled to a number of well-respected locations in Europe - Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris, the Serpentine Gallery in London, and the British Film Institute Southbank in London.
Prague’s exhibit will be open until April 22 and focus on the work of the artist created after 1989; nonetheless, the five events that are scheduled through the three months of the exhibition will incorporate some of his earlier works, including his most acknowledged pictures “Walden”, “Reminiscences of Journey to Lithuania”, and “Lost, Lost, Lost.” One of the events is planned to be honored by the visit of the avant-garde cinema guru, Jonas Mekas, himself.
At the opening J.Mekas live welcomed the audience via a Skype conversation from Brooklyn and invited them to enjoy the moments of “the beautiful life of a happy man” captured in his films. He shared, that through his life he has witnessed a shift – still ongoing – in his perception of “homeland,” sometimes from Lithuania, to New York, Film to Poetry, or something else entirely.
The DOX exhibition will highlight two of Mekas‘ projects of the last decade; those are the 2007 video diary titled 365 Day Project, inspired by the collection of 366 poems by the Italian Renaissance poet Francesco Petrarca, and the latest - Out-Takes from the Life of a Happy Man.
Jaroslav Andel, a Czech art critic who has known Mekas since their encounter in New York in 1981, is curating the exhibition at DOX. Embassy of the Republic of Lithuania for the Czech Republic initiated and helped to organize the exhibition.
The opening of the Mekas’ first exhibition in Czech Republic was accompanied by another unique event. The Czech avant-garde rock band Alaverdi gave an earth-shattering performance of their original work written in Lithuanian language.
