Jonas Mekas. Images are real

Jonas Mekas, Images Are Real was published on the occasion of the homonymous exhibition curated by Francesco Urbano Ragazzi and realized at Mattatoio di Roma from November 7, 2022, to February 26, 2023. The book 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 2010s, 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. In addition to an essay by the curators of the exhibition, the volume includes contributions by poet Hollis Melton and film historian P. Adams Sitney, who have followed the Lithuanian-born artist and filmmaker throughout his life in the United States, and timely essays by Ieva Jasinskaite and Philipp Scheid, representatives of a new breed of researchers capable of interpreting Mekas's work according to contemporary perspectives.