The Film Gallery is pleased to present Just...Songs, the first solo exhibition at the gallery by Lithuanian artist and filmmaker Julius Ziz, featuring two recent projects: War Doodles, a film made in collaboration with artist Aga Ousseinov, and Songs, a series of collage-boxes created especially for this exhibition.

I'm sharing with you, my friends, my latest film, made together with Aga Ousseinov, War Doodles, and a series of collage-boxes called Songs.

It all started in Ireland. In the very beginning I was far away from my friends and couldn’t make films. So, I started making collages which fit into a small cigar box. Like message in a bottle. Remembering the words of Jonas Mekas: keep working, keeping moving ahead, no matter where you are. In the beginning I put into those boxes ideas for films which I knew I would never make. Then those box-collages became gifts to my friends, they were sent all around the world.

Although some are very old, most of these boxes were made for the show. And they are called Songs. Each box is a song without music and words. It's all up to your imagination, what you will hear. Imagination is very personal, like experimental cinema is, and where my heart beats.

And yes, Dear Friends, Paradise not yet lost!

War Doodles is a film-collage constructed from 16mm found footage (1930-1970), and still images of artwork by Aga Ousseinov. This film forms a kaleidoscope of images, raging from peaceful, bucolic landscapes and joyful everyday moments to the power of modern industry and science, revolutions, and horrific scenes of war, suffering and pain.

—Julius Ziz, 2025

About the artist

Julius Ziz’s films have been screened at many international festivals: Rotterdam, Nyon, Berlin, Karlovy Vary, Oberhausen, San Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Edinburgh and Montreal to name a few, museums including the MoMA, The Whitney Museum, Museum of Modern Art city of Paris, Centre Pompidou, Jeu de Paume, French Cinémathèque and Austrian National Film Museum. His films are in the collections of the MoMA, French Cinémathèque, Austrian National Film Museum and the Museum of Modern Art city of Paris.