Destruction Quartet

JONAS MEKAS

2006

6min

4-channel video installation, analog, color, sound

The Destruction Quartet was originally presented in the Lithuanian Pavilion at the 51st Venice Biennale in 2005. It features four films, each presented on a separate monitor, which bring together fragments of symbolic and real acts of destruction. Each film, of varying duration, is played on a continuous loop. The first documents a 1997 Nam June Paik performance in which he destroys a piano, the second observes the demolition of the Berlin Wall in 1990, the third is Mekas’ footage of Danius Kesminas’ fire sculpture, (New York) Consequence, presented in New York by agnès b in 1991, and the last graphically records the September 11 destruction of the World Trade Center. Mekas filmed 9/11 from the roof of his SoHo apartment building.

Farewell to Soho Quartet

Jonas Mekas

1967~2004

variable duration

4-channel video, 16mm, color, sound

Farewell to Soho consists of a quartet of videos which is my declaration of love to SoHo and also my Farewell to it. In 1967 I was the founding member of the first Soho co-operative building created by George Maciunas, the father of SoHo, on 80 Wooster Street. These four videos – they can be viewed individually or as an installation on four monitors – give glimpses of how SoHo looked in its early years and how it changed; how through the years it changed from the artists’ utopia into a business utopia. At the same time this video quartet is my elegy to Soho – its lofts, its streets, people, and to George himself who created this dream that radically transformed downtown New York, that lasted for a while, and then it was gone, I mean, it became just another part of the city called New York.

Farewell to Soho Quartet

Jonas Mekas

1967~2004

variable duration

4-channel video, 16mm, color, sound

Farewell to Soho consists of a quartet of videos which is my declaration of love to SoHo and also my Farewell to it. In 1967 I was the founding member of the first Soho co-operative building created by George Maciunas, the father of SoHo, on 80 Wooster Street. These four videos – they can be viewed individually or as an installation on four monitors – give glimpses of how SoHo looked in its early years and how it changed; how through the years it changed from the artists’ utopia into a business utopia. At the same time this video quartet is my elegy to Soho – its lofts, its streets, people, and to George himself who created this dream that radically transformed downtown New York, that lasted for a while, and then it was gone, I mean, it became just another part of the city called New York.

Zefiro Torna or Scenes from the Life of George Maciunas

Jonas Mekas

1992

34min

1992, 16mm, color, sound

Footage of George Maciunas taken between 1952 and 1978. George Maciounas was the founding member of Fluxus movement, a close friend of Jonas Mekas and exiled Lithuanian artist. Jonas. The film includes footage of his parents, footage of many Fluxus events and scenes from Maciunas’ private life and friends. Such as Yoko Ono, John Lennon, Andy Warhol, Joe Jones, Almus Salcius, and many others. Soundtrack: A madrigal by Monteverdi (Zefiro Torna); Jonas Mekas reading from the diaries kept during the last year of Maciunas’ life. The footage does not depicts Maciounas' illness or pain, even in the moment he suffered from his last year's illness. Makiounas on the hospital bed is always smiling in his footage.

Award Presentation to Andy Warhol

Jonas Mekas

1964

12min

16mm, b&w, sound

In 1964 Film Culture magazine chose Andy Warhol for its annual Independent Film award. The plan was to show some of Andy s films and have Andy come on stage and hand him the award. Andy said, no, he doesn’t want a public presentation. So I decide to hand the award at the Factory, film the occasion, and show the film at the Award Presentation show at the New Yorker Theater. Andy thought it was a good idea. He got some of the superstars together, for the occasion. As a tribute to Andy, I slowed down the film in printing and added Supremes music which was the daily background at the factory during those days. _ Jonas Mekas

Travel Songs

Jonas Mekas

1967~2003

variable each

4-channel video, digital, color, silent, duration

Five different ‘songs’ or segments: footage from Avila, Stockholm, Moscow, Assisi, Italy. Brief images, a lot of single frame activity. The Song of Assisi, 1967, 2 min & The Song of Avila, 1967, 4 min The Song of Moscow, 1971, 3 min The Song of Stockholm, 1980, 4 min The Song of Italy, 1967, 15 min

Travel Songs

Jonas Mekas

1967~2003

variable each

4-channel video, digital, color, silent, duration

Five different ‘songs’ or segments: footage from Avila, Stockholm, Moscow, Assisi, Italy. Brief images, a lot of single frame activity. The Song of Assisi, 1967, 2 min & The Song of Avila, 1967, 4 min The Song of Moscow, 1971, 3 min The Song of Stockholm, 1980, 4 min The Song of Italy, 1967, 15 min

Walden

Jonas Mekas

1968~69

180min

3-channel video, 16mm, sound

Walden was Mekas’ first diary film, and it was edited as a collection of images gathered between 1964 and 1969. This film is organised into six reels, it plays in chronological order along the seasons of the year. In the first two reels, it shows Mekas' friends, trips and activities on the Film makers cooperative and cinematheque he founded during his New York life.The next two reels of the film includes scenes of winter. It starts with protest scene "Women for peace".In the final two reels of the film, Mekas includes more footage about underground filmmaking with his brother Adolfas Mekas in the spring and autumn.

Sistine Chapel

Nam June Paik

1993

variable size

video installation, 4-channel video, color, sound

Sistine Chapel is immersive 4-channel video installation work from Nam June Paik. Inspired by the Sistine Chapel Ceiling, the essence of Renaissance art, Sistine Chapel is the piece that won Nam June Paik the Gold Lion Award when he exhibited at the German pavilion of the 1993 Venice Biennale. The primary video channel shows fragments of Nam June Paik’s collaborative works with his contemporaries. Nam June Paik and Fluxus shared an understanding of the era in which images were increasingly used in everyday life. He was greatly influenced by composers Karlheinz Stockhausen and John Cage and a founder of Fluxus movement and lithuanian artist George Maciunas. Sistine Chapel shows the essence of Paik’s experimentalism and the influence of other artists in his creative method. With this Sistine Chapel work, we can survey the records of their activities of american avant-garde and fluxus movement and where Jonas Mekas and Nam June Paik were active in the 1960s.