Phong Bui, discusses Jonas Mekas’s evolution as an artist and his influence on avant-garde cinema. He emphasizes Mekas's ability to find beauty in everyday moments, and his enthusiasm for filmmaking. Bui explores the concept of aesthetic experience and how Mekas embodied it in his art.

Phong H. Bui is an artist, writer, independent curator, and former Curatorial Advisor at MoMA PS1 (2007-2010), he is also the Co-Founder, Publisher, and Artistic Director of the free monthly journal the Brooklyn Rail, the River Rail, the publishing press Rail Editions, Rail Curatorial Projects, and the Host/Producer of “Off the Rail” on Art International Radio. Since 2000, he has curated nearly 60 one-person and group exhibits. In 2013 he founded Rail Curatorial Projects, which aims to curate group exhibits that respond specifically to location, cultural moment, and economic conditions. He is a trustee of Studio in a School, the Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation, Anthology Film Archives, the Third Rail, the Miami Rail, Sharpe-Walentas Studio Program, Second Shift Studio Space of Saint Paul, International Association of Art Critics (AICA-USA 2007-2020), among others. He is also a member of the Art Advisory Council of Fountain House Gallery, Co-Founder and Co-Chairman of The Monira Foundation, a non-profit which aims to curate ongoing exhibitions and public programming at Mana Contemporary in Jersey City and beyond. He was a Senior Critic at Yale MFA, Columbia University MFA, and University of Pennsylvania MFA from 2012 to 2015. He has taught graduate seminars in MFA Writing and Criticism and MFA Photography, Video, and Related Media at the School of Visual Arts from 2012 to 2016. He has received numerous awards, including an Honorary Doctorate of University of the Arts (2020), the Jetté Award for Leadership in the Arts, Colby College Museum of Art (2019), The Lunder Fellowship, The Lunder Institute for American Art (2019), The Dorothea and Leo Rabkin Foundation Prize in Fine Art Journalism (2017), and The Esther Montanez Leadership Award, Fountain House (2016), among others.

From the 2022 Documentary FRAGMENTS OF PARADISE about Lithuanian filmmaker, Jonas Mekas. From his arrival in New York as a displaced person in 1949 to his death in 2019, he chronicled the trauma and loss of exile while pioneering institutions to support the growth of independent film in the United States. Internationally known as the “godfather” of avant-garde cinema, he inspired countless independent artists.

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Chapter Markers:
00:00 - Opening
00:09 - Phong Bui Introduction and the Brooklyn Rail
01:22 - Learning about Jonas Mekas
08:41 - Meeting Jonas
10:12 - Jonas’ inner child
12:57 - Early 2000s with Jonas
14:27 - Raimund Abraham and creating Film Anthology Archive
19:02 - Jonas, his camera, and “glimpses of beauty”
25:01 - Jonas’ films as subversion
31:08 - Gratitude as Jonas’ inner strength
34:55 - Jonas’ ability to deal with ego
40:20 - Politics of the 50s and 60s
46:18 - Reflections on being an immigrant
51:05 - “My country is my culture”
54:38 - Loss of artistic cross-pollination
56:40 - Wisdom of elders
01:01:11 - Jonas’ post-divorce struggles
01:04:19 - Curating show for Jonas and the beauty of friendship
01:08:54 - Jonas as a visionary
01:24:34 - Jonas vs. Andy Warhol
01:28:58 - Phong and Jonas’ friendship
01:33:32 - Jonas’ passing
01:35:08 - The avant-garde community Jonas created
01:38:00 - The necessary and poetic creation of art
01:48:47 - Mentorship and the “invisible” film vanguard
01:54:55 - Rejecting the one-dimensional artist

Phong Bui, Artist & Writer
Interview Date: May 10, 2021
Interviewed By: Katie Davison

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