Jonas Mekas Gets First Asian Retrospective at MMCA Seoul

The National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art of Korea (MMCA) in Seoul is hosting the first Asian retrospective of Jonas Mekas, the Lithuanian-born avant-garde filmmaker and artist. Titled "Again, Again It All Comes Back to Me in Brief Glimpses," the exhibition runs until March 4, 2018. Curated by Francesco Urbano Ragazzi and Eunhee Kim, it features 34 key works spanning Mekas's sixty-year career. The show reinterprets his oeuvre as a celebration of daily life as a form of resistance against human brutality. Mekas's films function as a diary, capturing encounters with friends like Andy Warhol, Allen Ginsberg, and Yoko Ono, as well as simple moments with a flower or a cat, all presented through non-narrative editing. The retrospective traces the fundamental stages of his life and career, creating a mosaic of new possible meanings. Mekas, born in Biržai, Lithuania, in 1922, remains highly active, with an upcoming Italian solo show opening March 10 at Palazzo della Ragione in Bergamo.