Thursday, June 3, 2021
A Conversation with Jurij Meden
Recently, in the midst of preparations for Light Industry’s reopening, we had a chance to talk with Jurij Meden, one of the most interesting curators working today. He modestly refers to his new book Scratches and Glitches, the subject of our conversation, as a “somewhat personal collection of pieces on film preservation and exhibition in the 21st century,” and the essays that comprise this slim but potent volume, written over the span of a decade, grew out of events and discussions that occurred during Meden’s time at institutions like the Slovenian Cinematheque, the George Eastman Museum, and, his current home, the Austrian Film Museum. He engages numerous internal debates that rage within the international network of film archivists and programmers, yet Meden’s observations speak to questions that extend far beyond this particular community. Indeed, they’re highly relevant to anyone concerned with the fate of the moving image as an art form. Darting nimbly around the digital versus analog divide, addressing the fear of lost media, and pondering the fate of moviegoing after the pandemic, Meden offers an array of provocative philosophical ruminations that embrace the contradictions and complexities of cinema’s present.