Jonas Mekas
365 Day Project
screening in 12 parts January to December 2015
Part One: “January”, Friday January 30, 7:00pm
admission $6 – artist in person
From 365 Day Project: Part One (Days 1 – 31) © 2007 Jonas Mekas
courtesy of the artist
Microscope is extremely pleased to announce the screening premiere of the complete “365 Day Project” by Jonas Mekas, a nearly 38-hour video project composed of 365 individual videos posted daily on his website in 2007. The work will be screened across twelve programs, one each month of 2015, with part one “January” launching the series on Friday January 30th.
For “365”, as the project is more commonly known, Mekas challenged himself to make and upload a video on his website every day for an entire year. Despite the occasional technical or emotional close call, Mekas persevered capturing snowstorms, friendly birds and squirrels, historical news reports, gathering with friends and lots of music both at home in Brooklyn and during his travels abroad, at times repurposing or incorporating previously unseen footage from his earlier 16mm films or analog videos.
Originally each of the videos, ranging from under 30 seconds to 30 minutes, were immediately made available for download and playable on smartphones at a time which was well before watching content in this manner was ordinary – Facebook had just been made publicly accessible and the first iPhone was released that same year. Highlights from Part One (Days 1 – 31) include original artworks and writings by Apollinaire, a visit to Louise Bourgeois on her 95th birthday, a tour of the Castle of the Marquis de Sade with Taylor Mead and Jerome Hill, a spontaneous music performance in the lobby of Anthology Film Archives with the artist Douglas Gordon, a day of the Epiphany parade in Brooklyn, a conversation with Susan Sontag and Bela Tarr, and Mekas listening to his radio at home among others.
“Every day of the year 2007 I placed on my website one new video usually about three to ten minutes in length. By the time the project ended, I had made 38 hours of completed video works, the equivalent of twenty feature films… It was the most challenging undertaking I had ever done. The videos deal with my life in Brooklyn and my many travels of that year. It’s personal and anthropological (impersonal) at the same time. During my travels I relied a lot on technical and other help from The Gang (Benn Northover, Sebastian Mekas — I travel most of the time with the Gang) and Elle Burchill was always ready at my Brooklyn station. You’ll see a lot of me and my friends, various daily activities, gettings together, a lot of music, and a lot of events around New York and Europe that year. The main challenge was to record it and share it immediately with my many friends all over the world. Today I still do the same, but not daily, with less pressure, on my website www.jonasmekas.com” – Jonas Mekas
Part One: “January” (Days 1-31)
by Jonas Mekas, video, 2007, 2 hours 55 minutes
The “365 Day Project” has previously been presented in its complete form as an installation (playing on 12 or 52 monitors) at ZKM, Karlsruhe (Germany); Hermitage, St. Petersburg (Russia); galerie du jour, Paris (France) and 2B Gallery, Budapest, Hungary.
For additional information please contact the gallery at 347.925.1433 or by email at inquiries@microscopegallery.com
_
JONAS MEKAS was born in 1922 in Semeniškiai, Lithuania and currently lives and works in Brooklyn, NY. Mekas was brought to the US along with his brother Adolfas in 1949 by the UN Refugee Organization. Within weeks, Mekas borrowed money to buy his first Bolex camera and began to record brief moments of his life. Mekas is now among the most influential makers of avant-garde film and a master of the diaristic form.
His works are shown regularly in the US and internationally including recent solo exhibitions at KZM Karlsruhe, Museum Ludwig, Cologne, Stadmuseum Weisbaden in Germany; Serpentine Gallery, London, UK; Centre Pompidou, Paris; James Fuentes Gallery, NY; DOX Centre for Contemporary Art, Prague; MUAC, Mexico City; Krinzinger Projekte Vienna; National Museum of Art, Washington, DC. Mekas’ works have also previously exhibited at Moderna Museet, Stockholm; PS1 Contemporary Art Center MoMA,Queens; Documenta, Kassel, Galerie Du Jour, Paris; Venice Biennale, Venice; among many others.
Mekas has also published more than 20 books of prose and poetry, which have been translated into over 12 languages. He was co-founder of the influential Film Culture magazine and wrote his “Movie Journal” column at the Village Voice for 20 years. He also founded the Film-Makers’ Cooperative in 1962, and in 1964 the Film-Makers’ Cinematheque, which eventually grew into Anthology Film Archives. Both are still operating under the original mission today.
Microscope gratefully acknowledges the Robert D. Bielecki Foundation as the Official Sponsor of our Event Series
