Images Are Real - Jonas Mekas

Jonas Mekas, Images Are Real collects sixty years of activity of Jonas Mekas (Biržai 1922 – New York 2019) within and beyond the history of avant-garde cinema. Through a wide selection of works from the 1960s to the late 1910s, the book aims to read the Lithuanian filmmaker’s work as a Dantean journey from the hell of History to happiness through an everyday film exercise. The title of the exhibition and catalog is a quote taken from the film Out-takes From the Life of a Happy Man, in which the artist’s voice-over reflects himself, “Memories are passed, but images are here, and images are real!” Completing the volume are a collection of texts by Francesco Urbano Ragazzi, Hollis Melton, P. Adams Sitney, Ieva Jasinskaite, and Philipp Scheid.

This catalogue was published on the occasion of the exhibition Jonas Mekas. Images Are Reala curated by Francesco Urbano Ragazzi and realized at Mattatoio, Roma in collaboration with the Lithuanian Culture Institute and the Embassy of the Republic of Lithuania in Rome.

CURA, 2023
Softcover, 224pp
270 x 190 mm