Friday February 27, 7:00pm
Jonas Mekas
365 Day Project: Part Two “February”
screening in 12 parts January to December 2015
artist in person for Q&A after the program
admission $6
© Jonas Mekas – image courtesy of the artist
Microscope is extremely pleased to announce the screening of PART TWO “February” from the “365 Day Project” by Jonas Mekas. This is the second of 12 monthly programs taking place this year as part of the screening premiere of the complete and nearly 38-hour video project.
Part Two (Days 32 – 59) highlights include: a visit to La Ciotat where the Lumière brothers filmed their first movie, a Nina Hagen concert, Jonas in the snow of his native Lithuanian, news of Britney Spears shaving her head, Ornette Coleman practicing in his studio, the set of Scorsese’s “Departed” and much dancing and singing. Mekas will hold a Q&A after the screening.
For “365” Mekas challenged himself to make and upload a video on his website every day for an entire year in 2007. 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.
“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
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
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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.
© Jonas Mekas – image courtesy of the artist
