Jonas Mekas Visual Arts Center
Now you have one more reason to visit Lithuania! As if you needed one...
"New York/April 12, 2007 - The City Council of Vilnius, Lithuania established the Jonas Mekas Visual Arts Center on February 19th. The new center will exhibit collections by Jonas Mekas, the internationally renowned avant-garde filmmaker, and George Maciunas (1931-1978), the impresario/creator of Fluxus, a key art movement of the second part of the 20th century.
“New York City has always been home to the avant-garde and two of its most influential figures have been Lithuanian. The international resonance of the Fluxus world that they created will provide the impetus for Vilnius to become the world’s new center for the avant-garde,” said Mayor Arturas Zuokas.
Mayor Zuokas noted that Vilnius has been declared a European Capital of Culture for 2009 and the founding of the Jonas Mekas Visual Arts Center is the first step in preparation for the City’s monumental role.
Jonas Mekas, renowned filmmaker and inventor of the Diarist Cinema, continues to preserve a collective memoir where life and art are inseparable. Mekas came to New York City in 1949 and quickly became a prominent figure among the city’s art scene. He founded Anthology Film Archives, the Film-Makers’ Cooperative, Film Culture magazine, and wrote film reviews for the Village Voice from 1958 to 1978. Mekas’ expansions upon the qualities of intimacy, spontaneity, and supreme selectivity are crafted through his distinctive discourses of time as the ordinary. Films focus on friends and collaborators such as Hans Richter and Andy Warhol to reveal deeply intimate portraits. Mekas masterfully extracts from thousands of hours of film footage, giving rise to interpretations of life experienced and life remembered.
more here: http://www.mayastendhalgallery.com/
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