Open Book: Chihiro ITO

Monira Foundation presents: Open Book with Chihiro ITO. This Open Book features the zines created by Chihiro ITO during his Jonas Mekas Research and Production Residency and Fellowship at Monira Foundation. During his six-month supported Residency and Fellowship, Chihiro worked to support Sebastian Mekas in enhancing the archives of Jonas Mekas, a visionary who dedicated his life to democratizing film, media, and art, and to create new works inspired by that archive. This Open Book presentation is an annex project to his current exhibition at Monira Foundation: ‘𝘙𝘦𝘦𝘭 𝘵𝘰 𝘙𝘦𝘦𝘭 -𝘵𝘰 𝘑𝘰𝘯𝘢𝘴 𝘔𝘦𝘬𝘢𝘴-.’ 

Chihiro Ito is a Japanese painter and multimedia artist. He was born in Tokyo, where he studied painting at Musashino Art University. He also took a continuing education writing course at the School of Visual Arts. He was an invited artist at European Capital of Culture events in Portugal, Cyprus, and Serbia. In 2018, he received a grant from the Japanese government to come to the US, where he began documenting the remaining living artists associated with Fluxus. He encountered Jonas Mekas during his NYC visit. After these experiences, he began to make experimental films and poetry. In his art, he looks for the opportunity in poetry to connect ordinary objects and everyday experiences to people across geopolitical boundaries.

These zines are available for purchase at the Monira Foundation website: https://monirafoundation.org/shop/

The Jonas Mekas Research and Production Fellowship is supported by the National Endowment for the Arts.