{"id":761,"date":"2007-11-04T12:01:08","date_gmt":"2007-11-04T10:01:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mekocentras.wordpress.com\/?p=761"},"modified":"2007-11-04T12:01:08","modified_gmt":"2007-11-04T10:01:08","slug":"the-avant-garde-from-futurism-to-fluxus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mekas.lt\/lt\/2007\/11\/the-avant-garde-from-futurism-to-fluxus\/","title":{"rendered":"The Avant-Garde: From Futurism to Fluxus"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Jonas Mekas Visual Arts Center (JMVAC) in Vilnius, Lithuania proudly announces its premier exhibition, The Avant-Garde: From Futurism to Fluxus, which opens to the public on November 4, 2007 and runs through February 3, 2008. The exhibition highlights the history of the avant-garde through some of its most pivotal figures and a wide array of mediums including film, film stills, installation, Fluxus objects and documents, sculpture, video, and poetry, which cooperatively stimulated new ways of thinking about art, culture, and society. Furthermore, the exhibition represents a celebratory homecoming for two of Lithuania\u2019s most prolific artists: pioneering avant-garde filmmaker Jonas Mekas and George Maciunas, the impresario and \u201cChairman\u201d of the 1960\u2019s international art movement Fluxus.<\/p>\n

Kazys Binkis, the Futurist poet and writer whose literary activity awakened Lithuania to avant-garde philosophy and aesthetics holds an honorary place in the program. His books, poems, and manuscripts are a testament to his enigmatic persona and contribution to the progression of Lithuanian art and culture.<\/p>\n

Jonas Mekas \u201cThe Godfather of American Avant-Garde Cinema\u201d continues his groundbreaking work through new installations in which the still and moving image conjoin in a spectacular multimedia presentation. His Collection of 40 Short Films, recently on view at P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center in New York is shown on monitors and wall projections together with 40 film stills extracted from this riveting series.<\/p>\n

The installations demonstrate Mekas\u2019 formal innovations as well as his importance as a documentarian. Among the colorful and well known personalities who appear in his films are: John Lennon, Salvador Dali, George Maciunas, Richard Serra, Nam June Paik, Andy Warhol, and Allen Ginsberg, reminding us that Mekas\u2019 films represent some of the best historical footage of the avant-garde in existence from the 1960\u2019s to the present. Also featured will be Zefiro Torna: Scenes From the Life of George Maciunas (1992), Mekas\u2019 cinematic homage to his longtime friend and collaborator. Complementing the film are 40 film stills that Mekas crafted specially for the exhibition.<\/p>\n

Essential works have been selected from the Center\u2019s recently acquired Fluxus collection. Maciunas\u2019 readymade sign No Smoking (1963\/1973), his collaborative work with George Brecht realized through Iced Dice (1964), and Yoko Ono\u2019s Do It Yourself (1966) demonstrate the movement\u2019s emphasis on humor and desire to construct art from everyday objects and actions. The 80 Wooster Street documents reveal the nuts and bolts behind Maciunas\u2019 vision to convert the industrial buildings of New York\u2019s downtown SoHo neighborhood into the legendary Fluxhouse Artist Cooperatives, which earned him the title of \u201cFather of SoHo.\u201d Also on view will be Nam June Paik\u2019s conceptual video installation Real Plant\/Live Plant (1978) and video sculpture TV Rodin (1975). Larry Miller\u2019s Some Fluxus (1991) showcases key Fluxus performances incorporating segments from Maciunas\u2019 final interview in which Maciunas explains his lifelong fascination with charts, systemization, and humor. Shigeko Kubota\u2019s Fluxus SoHo Tour (1994) offers another intimate look at Maciunas as he and Fluxus members travel the streets of SoHo speaking in their native languages. While the international Fluxus movement as a whole is the subject of Lars Movin\u2019s The Misfits: 30 Years of Fluxus (1993), Maciunas\u2019 comprehensive production Fluxfilm Anthology (1962-70) encapsulates the group\u2019s critical yet playful engagement with film tradition.<\/p>\n

Jonas Mekas specifically curates a roster of films by visionaries of avant-garde cinema. So honored are Luis Bu\u00f1uel\u2019s revolutionary surrealist film Un Chien Andalou (1929) written in collaboration with Salvador Dal\u00ed, Marcel Duchamp\u2019s characteristically Dada film Anemic Cinema (1926), Hans Richter\u2019s Dada masterpiece Rhythmus 21 (1921), Fernand L\u00e9ger\u2019s pioneering cinematic testament Ballet M\u00e9canique (1924), and Peter Kubelka\u2019s experimental, abstract film Arnulf Rainer (1960).<\/p>\n

\u201cJonas Mekas was born and raised in Lithuania. As a renowned poet in his native country, he pushed the boundaries of language to its most creative edges. After he was forced to leave Lithuania during World War II, Jonas found a new home in New York and continued paving new avant-garde frontiers. This time, he chose the universal language of cinema as his area of communication. Jonas\u2019 return to Lithuania is not only a home-coming, but a continuation of new realities\u201d, stated Art\u016bras Zuokas, the Chairman of the Board of the Jonas Mekas Visual Arts Center.<\/p>\n

This landmark exhibition culminates in the historic moment when Lithuania assumes the esteemed position of European Capital of Culture in 2009. Such international recognition attests to the fact that a vibrant new period in Lithuanian culture has already emerged.<\/p>\n

The exhibition will be accompanied with a full-page color catalogue with essays by R. Bruce Elder, P. Adams Sitney, Amy Taubin, Mari Dumett, Julia Robinson, Carolina Carrasco, Astrit Schmidt-Burkhardt, and Hollis Melton.<\/p>\n

Jonas Mekas Visual Arts Center, Ms. Maya Stendhal, and Mr. Harry Stendhal \u2013 exhibition curators Ms. Mari Dumett \u2013 Co-curator Fluxus Documents.<\/p>\n

\"Jonas<\/a>

Jonas Mekas „Art is always only art”<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Pirmosios<\/a>

Sun Jiazheng, the Minister of Culture of People’s Republic of China congratulates J mekas on the opening of the first exhibition at the JMVAC<\/p><\/div>\n

\"J.<\/a>

J. Mekas and the head of the JMVAC Kristijonas Kucinskas give thanks to the sponsor of the center – the chief executive officer of the company „Ranga IV investicijos” Laimutis Pinkevicius\u00a0<\/p><\/div>\n

\"LR<\/a>

The Prime Minister of the Republic of Lithuania Gediminas Kirkilas and Jonas Mekas<\/p><\/div>\n

\"J.<\/a>

J. Mekas\u00a0is happy to welcome a famous Japanese artist, one of the leaders and founders of the FLUXUS movement – Shigeko Kubota<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Gugenheimo<\/a>

Thomas Krens, the head of the Guggenheim Museum in NY<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Sen\u0173<\/a>

Jonas Mekas and Vytautas Landsbergis, member of the EP<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Guggenheimo<\/a>

Thomas Krens, the head of the Guggenheim Museum and Arturas Zuokas, president\u00a0of the board of the JMVAC<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Sankt<\/a>

Mikhail Piotrovsky, director of the State Hermitage Museum in Sankt Peterburg<\/p><\/div>\n

\"storinis<\/a>

Opening of the exhibition: \u00a0The Mayor of Vilnius J. Imbrasas, Jonas Mekas and Prime Minsiter of Lithuania Gediminas Kirkilas<\/p><\/div>\n

\"J.<\/a>

J. Mekas\u00a0and his family<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Nuo<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Pirmosios<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Jonas Mekas Visual Arts Center (JMVAC) in Vilnius, Lithuania proudly announces its premier exhibition, The Avant-Garde: From Futurism to Fluxus, which opens to the public on November 4, 2007 and runs through February 3, 2008. The exhibition highlights the history of the avant-garde through some of its most pivotal figures and a wide array […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,5,6,12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-761","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-english","category-exhibition","category-fluxus","category-jonas-mekas"],"translation":{"provider":"WPGlobus","version":"3.0.5","language":"lt","enabled_languages":["en","lt"],"languages":{"en":{"title":true,"content":true,"excerpt":false},"lt":{"title":false,"content":false,"excerpt":false}}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mekas.lt\/lt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/761","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mekas.lt\/lt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mekas.lt\/lt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mekas.lt\/lt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mekas.lt\/lt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=761"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mekas.lt\/lt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/761\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mekas.lt\/lt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=761"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mekas.lt\/lt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=761"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mekas.lt\/lt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=761"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}