Two exhibitions
dal 24/7/2014 al 8/11/2014
Segnalato da
24/7/2014
Two exhibitions
ZKM_Center for Art and Media, Karlsruhe
Jean-Jacques Lebel understands his actions, installations, sculptures, objects, paintings and videos as revolts, as artistic actions being directed at injustice, against the terror of war and psychiatry, and against the self-inflicted immaturity of a restrictive culture. In his films, videos and installations, Jonas Mekas frequently centers on the complex of biographical memory, simultaneously exploring the technological singularities of the various mnemonic devices he audaciously uses.
Jean-Jacques Lebel
The Highest of All the Arts is Insurrection
The large-scale retrospective of installative works is given over to Jean-Jacques Lebel − one of the first to shock the international public in the early 1960s with his open Happenings.
The French artist understands his actions, installations, sculptures, objects, paintings and videos as revolts, as artistic actions being directed at injustice, against the terror of war and psychiatry, and against the self-inflicted immaturity of a restrictive culture.
The exhibition provides deep insight into Jean-Jacques Lebel’s multiform work − an artist intimately connected with the poets and intellectuals of the Beat Generation.
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Jonas Mekas
365 Day Project
The filmmaker and poet Jonas Mekas has been one of the most influential figures in experimental film since the 1960s. Born in Lithuania in 1922, he found his second home in New York City in 1949 where he personally encountered the artistic movements of the city, quickly becoming part of the avant-garde.
In his films, videos and installations, Jonas Mekas frequently centers on the complex of biographical memory, simultaneously exploring the technological singularities of the various mnemonic devices he audaciously uses: classic 16mm film, digital video systems, internet based video platforms and other forms of non-collective reception beyond the movie theater. “Mekas on film” is thus always also “Mekas on film”.
For the 365 Day Project, Mekas recorded a video on every day of 2007. The resulting collection of videos forms a fragmented audiovisual journal. We see landscapes, live recordings of public events, gatherings with friends such as Jean-Jacques Lebel, archive footage and Jonas Mekas himself, reflecting on philosophical questions.
In the exhibition, the project is presented as an installation of 52 screens that allows watching the videos both individually and simultaneously as a large mosaic of moving images. The filmic technique of montage, for Walter Benjamin the manifestation of film’s revolutionary potential, is spatialized and the construction of a timeline thus left to the viewer. In addition, in Mekas’ work, it is a potential of light and color as well, as Mekas uses not only cuts but also exposure to detonate “the dynamite of the tenth of a second” (Benjamin).
Still, the 365 Day Project is neither finale nor culmination of Mekas’ work, but only one part of many, one part of a continuous chronicle of events. Through Mekas’ homepage, his video diary entries for the past few weeks are already accessible.
Image: Jean-Jacques Lebel, 120 minutes dédiées au Divin Marquis, 3e festival de la libre expression, 1996. Foto: unbekannt © Jean-Jacques Lebel
Press Contact:
Dominika Szope Head of Department Press and Public Relations Tel: +49 (0)721 / 8100 – 1220
Constanze Heidt Assistant Press and Public Relations Tel: +49 (0)721 / 8100 – 1821 E-Mail: presse@zkm.de
Opening: Fri, July 25, 2014, 7 p.m.
ZKM | Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe
Lorenzstraße 19 76135 Karlsruhe
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