Serpentine Cinema presents Jonas Mekas‘s Requiem, presented as part of the World Poetry Day and initiated by the G. Pompidou Centre for Art and Culture, Paris.
Serpentine Cinema, Centre Pompidou and Close-Up present Jonas Mekas’s last film, Requiem (2019), as part of Poetry Day. Created by Centre Pompidou, World Poetry Day aims to renew and reinvent forms of celebrating poetry, inviting around thirty international venues to celebrate an emblematic figure in poetry. For 2024, Poetry Day will celebrate Lithuanian film-maker and poet Jonas Mekas.
Confirmed venues for Jonas Mekas Poetry Day 2024 include:
Centre Pompidou Paris – Lithuanian Season in France – Fondation Agnès B. (Paris) – CipM (Centre international de poésie (Marseille) – Festival Actoral (Marseille) – Re:Voir/The Film Gallery (Paris) – Book store L’Esperluète (Chartres, France) – National Opera of Lithuania (Vilnius, Lithuania) – Contemporary Art Centre (CAC) (Vilnius) – MO Museum (MMO) (Vilnius) – Jonas Mekas Center (Vilnius) – Lithuanian museum of film, theatre, and music (Vilnius) – Jurgis Bielinis library, (Biržai, Lithuania) – Magazine « As a Journal » (Lithuania) – Serpentine Gallery (London, Great Britain) – Archivio Conz (Berlin, Germany) – Agora Porto (Portugal) – FICBUEU Festival Internacional de Cinema de Bueu (Pontevedra, Spain) – MAS Movico Art Space (Brescia, Italy) – ICA (Milan, Italy) – Kunstmuseum Liechtenstein (Vaduz, Liechtenstein) – Filmform, The Art Film & Video Archive (Stockholm, Sweden) – JAM FACTORY Art Center (Lviv, Ukraine) – Microscope Gallery (New York City, USA) – Zebulon (Los Angeles, USA) – Seoul Art Cinema (South Korea) – Gwangju Independent Film Theater (GIFT) & Gwangju Film&Image Workers Collective (GFWC) (South Korea) – Theater Image Forum (Shibuya, Tokyo, Japan) – Lithuanian Embassy, Tokyo (Japan) – Vutter Kohen (Kyoto, Japan) / Kyoto Architectural Film Festival (Japan) – Pejman Foundation / Argo Contemporary Art Museum and Cultural Centre (Tehran, Iran)
ARTIST BIO
Born in Semeniškiai (Lithuania), Jonas Mekas (1922-2019) bought his first Bolex camera on his arrival in New York in 1949 and began to record moments of daily life. He was the “Movie Journal” columnist for the Village Voice. He set up and was the editor of Film Culture magazine with his brother Adolfas Mekas, and founded the Film-Makers’ Cooperative and Anthology Film Archives. His work later inspired many artists and film makers, such as Jim Jarmusch, Martin Scorsese, who recognized his influence. Mekas’s films, artwork and archival material have been exhibited extensively throughout the world: Documenta 11; the Venice Biennale 2005; MoMA PS1, New York; Museum Ludwig, Cologne; Baltic Art Center, Visby; the Metropolitan Museum of Photography, Tokyo.
