Vilnius Exhibition to Feature Creation of New York's SoHo

VILNIUS, Lithuania, May 17 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- An exhibition entitled "George Maciunas:  Father of SoHo" will open on June 1st in Vilnius, a city that seeks to become the 21st Century's capital of Fluxus.  The exhibition will run until September 1st.

George Maciunas, Lithuanian-American architect and visionary founder of the Fluxus art movement, conceived the idea of establishing cooperative buildings in New York City where people could freely work and create.   Rare documents, structural maps and correspondence with officials detail the excruciating process Maciunas underwent to legalize SoHo that transformed the entire downtown area.

Visual works by renowned Fluxus artists Shigeko Kubota and Larry Miller will be shown along with those of filmmaker Jeffrey Perkins and photographer Peter Moore. First-person interviews and historical footage will complement the exhibition.  A special Guest of Honor will be the legendary avant-garde filmmaker Jonas Mekas, a close co-worker with Maciunas during the early period of the creation of SoHo.

"The SoHo phenomenon was an important creative initiative that made a significant impact on social urban development in New York.  It is compelling in its grand scope and should be appreciated by both a local audience as well as an international one," stated Arturas Zuokas, founder of the Jonas Mekas Visual Arts Center.

The publication of "Illegal Living:  80 Wooster Street and the Evolution of SoHo" by authors Roslyn Bernstein and Shael Shapiro will be celebrated at the opening.   Hundreds of artists, including Allen Ginsberg, Philip Glass, John Lennon, Hermann Nitsch, Yoko Ono, Nam June Paik, and Andy Warhol were drawn to the building by Jonas Mekas' Cinematheque and showed their work in and around it.

In conjunction with the opening of the exhibition, the American Center has invited the Deputy Director of the New Museum of Contemporary Art in New York, John Hatfield, to give a series of lectures highlighting the effects and significance of cultural neighborhoods on the economic, social and political life of a city. Hatfield's main presentation in Vilnius will be at the "Ministry of Fluxus," a new venue containing studios, galleries and performance areas for avant-garde artists.

The exhibition is being hosted by the Jonas Mekas Visual Arts Center, the Jonas Mekas Foundation and The American Center.  Major corporate sponsors of the exhibition are "Akropolis," "Ukio Bankas," "Ranga Group" and "LAWIN."  

Website:  www.mekas.lt

SOURCE Jonas Mekas Foundation