Gordon Douglas: I Had Nowhere To Go

Galerie Eva Presenhuber announces the first exhibition featuring the new film installation “I Had Nowhere To Go” by Scottish artist Douglas Gordon.

“I Had Nowhere To Go” by the filmmaker and video artist Douglas Gordon is based on Jonas Mekas‘s diary. It’s been over 70 years since Jonas Mekas left his village in Lithuania to escape Nazi persecution. He was 22 years old. Today he is one of the last surviving members of a generation displaced. He is also one of the greatest documenters of the human experience.

For his new film project and the installative video work Douglas Gordon has recorded Jonas Mekas reading from „I Had Nowhere To Go“ and from here he assembled the most important steps in his life and the most emotional situations. Douglas Gordon has composed a few pictures among the black on the screen and in the room.

The presence of the authentic voice of the man himself injects a deeply personal tone and provokes powerful responses. But the complexities and time involved in capturing this footage should not be underestimated.

It might be the redemptive power of art, or maybe just the human condition, but in a world where displacement is a fact of life, the Jonas Mekas story has something to say to everyone.