re re re research.

Jonas Mekas was born in 1922 in the farming village of Semeniškiai, Lithuania. He currently lives and works in New York City. In 1944, he and his brother Adolfas were taken by the Nazis to a forced labor camp in Elmshorn, Germany. After the War he studied philosophy at the University of Mainz. At the end of 1949 the UN Refugee Organization brought both brothers to New York City.

Two weeks after his arrival in New York he borrowed money to buy his first Bolex camera and began to record brief moments of his life. He soon got deeply involved in the American Avant-Garde film movement. In 1954, together with his brother, he started Film Culture magazine, which soon became the most important film publication in the US. In 1958 he began his legendary Movie Journal column in the Village Voice. In 1962 he founded the Film-Makers' Cooperative, and in 1964 the Film-Makers' Cinematheque, which eventually grew into Anthology Film Archives, one of the world's largest and most important repositories of avant-garde cinema, and a screening venue.

During all this time he continued writing poetry and making films. To this date he has published more than 20 books of prose and poetry, which have been translated into over 12 languages. Since 2000, Mekas has expanded his work into the area of film installations

What I love in Mekas' work is that he is documenting life. Just simple banal things that happens in life. Also interviews and events of course. But life. And he is totally right, life might be trivial but there is beauty in triviality. I think the relationship to this project is that Mekas see beyond normal everyday's life things throught his own camera; and I think we do the same. When you make a video, or a film, when ou watch it over and over again, things keep to pop up, oh that's there, oh i haven't seen this. The more you watch the more you actually see, and here our project we focus on details because we play with the light and the fact that they changes with a close up etc. But I think that it would have been super intersting to just film one shot and put it again and again and again, but of course the tutors wouldn't like that one ! ah. But anyway, I love also the camera he is using and how it has an impact on how you watch the video. I also really like the fact that he is an artist and in the wide sense. I always loved the relationship words could have with a piece of art, or the absence of words. poetry, text, words. It all make sense all together.

365 day project/ Day 19