ジョナス・メカス・ビジュアルアートセンターがリトアニアに出来まし
ジョナス・メカスのニュースレターを取っているんですが、今、届きました。
JONAS MEKAS OPENS A NEW ART CENTER WITH THE INAUGURAL
EXHIBITION, THE AVANT-GARDE FROM FUTURISM TO FLUXUS, IN HIS
HOMETOWN OF VILNIUS, LITHUANIA.
The Jonas Mekas Visual Art Center in Vilnius, Lithuania opened its inaugural show, The Avant-Garde from Futurism to Fluxus, to great fanfare on Sunday November 4th. Luminaries who presided over the event included Gediminas Kirkilas, the country’s Prime Minister and both the current Mayor, Juozas Imbrasas, and the former Mayor, Arturas Zuokas, who is spearheading the Jonas Mekas Visual Arts Center and Guggenheim/Hermitage joint cultural venture. Also present were Thomas Krens, director of the Guggenheim Museum, exhibition curators, Harry and Maya Stendhal, Dr. Mikhail Piotrovsky, the director of the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, Russia, the Chinese Cultural Minister, and the American Ambassador in Vilnius.
The exhibition began in typical Fluxus spirit, with the 85 year-old man of the moment being chauffeured to the opening reception in a city bus emblazoned with his image on it. Upon arrival at the museum Jonas Mekas and his family, including his brother Adolfas and son Sebastian, were greeted by a huge crowd of young fans and members of the media from all over the world. Jonas, with a look of devilish mischief, cuts a film-strip ribbon to announce the official opening of the Visual Art Center. The crowd-pleasing centerpiece of the exhibition was a wall-to-wall installation of Jonas Mekas’s 40 Films. Classic films from Dada filmmakers Duchamp, Leger, and Richter provided the perfect counterpoint to Jonas’s own prodigious output from the 1950’s to the present-day. Also on display were objects, documents, and films from the city of Vilnius’s recently acquired George Maciunas Fluxus archives. Maya Stendhal Gallery’s architect,
Scott Weinkle designed the super white cube space of the Art Center―a formidable transplant of a New York Chelsea gallery to Vilnius. The logo and catalog were designed by Paula Scher of Pentagram International Design Firm. Scher is currently enjoying a solo exhibition at Maya Stendhal Gallery of her beautifully rendered, large-scale map paintings.During the reception Ben Vautier, legendary Fluxus artist and longtime friend of George Maciunas and Jonas Mekas, treated the lucky attendees to a one of a kind Fluxus concert. Vautier re-enacted classic Fluxus performances of the 1960’s. Shigeko Kubota, Vice-President of Fluxus, was also in attendance to lend her support, as was Robert Haller of Anthology Film Archives. Catalogs in English and Lithuanian, with essays by Princeton film scholar P. Adams Sitney, film critic and art historian Amy Taubin, and Fluxus scholars Hollis Melton, Astrit Schmidt-Burkhardt, Julia Robinson, and Mari Dumett were passed around and signed by Jonas Mekas. Champagne and sushi flowed freely as avant-garde films were watched with wonder by young and old alike.
The opening of the Jonas Mekas Visual Art Center bodes well for the future of the charming city of Vilnius, putting it on the map as a destination hub for the sophisticated traveler. Cultural starvation wrought by Nazi and Soviet occupation has finally come to an end―a moment symbolized by the many architectural restoration and building projects taking place throughout the city. The golden age of the 1920s is once again upon us.
Bringing together dignitaries, scholars, artists, businesspeople and media from around the world, the opening of the Jonas Mekas Visual Art Center turned into an all-day celebration of international proportions. All in attendance, though speaking different languages, could perhaps agree on one thing alone: the magnitude of the accomplishments of Jonas Mekas’s work and the surge of possibilities that the Art Center opens up for Vilnius as a cultural capital of Europe and beyond.
The Avant-Garde From Futurism to Fluxus will be on view at the Jonas Mekas Visual Art Center in Vilnius, Lithuania, from November 4th, 2007 to February 3rd, 2008.
For further information please contact:
Kristijonas Kucinskas – Jonas Mekas Visual Arts Center (JMVAC)
メカスも家族と一緒に参加したようです。映画のフィルムをあしらったリボンをカットしてオープニングとしたようです。
Jonas, with a look of devilish mischief, cuts a film-strip ribbon to announce the official opening of the Visual Art Center.
