This beautiful and mysterious book whose unedited pages contain a collection of letters that the famous brothers Jonas and Adolfas Mekas sent from America to Semeniškiai village, Biržai district, Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republic. They were all addressed to the most important addressee of their lives – their mother, Elzbieta Mekienė.

“This collection of letters from Adolfas and Jonas Mekas shows the importance of writing as a way of memory-making. For many years Jonas Mekas would write in a diary before his diaries were replaced by constant filmic documentation of his life and surroundings. The intimate insight these letters provide are wonderful documents of their time as well as marks of the dying art of letter writing. As Jonas once told me: “The future will be determined by the present moment; this moment, this very second, will determine the next moment.” So let us make sure to remember this present moment as it was, in part, determined by the moments described by Adolfas and Jonas Mekas in their wonderful letters.”

HANS ULRICH OBRIST, curator/writer/critic

French edition: Jonas et Adolfas Mekas. Ligne(s) de vie

Lithuanian edition: Jonas & Adolfas Mekas. Gyvenimo lai(š)kai