Mikael Levin's 'Cristina's History' Traces Jewish Migration Across Three Continents

Mikael Levin's exhibition 'Cristina's History' at Le Pont du Jour in Cherbourg-Octeville, France, from March 21 to June 7, 2009, retraces the 20th-century migrations of a Jewish family across three geographical locations. The show is divided into three rooms corresponding to Zgierz, Poland (where the artist's great-grandfather lived), Lisbon, Portugal (where Cristina's grandmother was born after her father moved there during WWI), and Guinea-Bissau (Cristina's birthplace). Each room features projected images—urban landscapes, family photos, manuscripts, and vintage postcards—accompanied by an audio recording in which Levin narrates his family's story, weaving in broader themes of modernity, war, empire, colonialism, and the promises of progress. The installation employs a dialectical approach to history, using rotating projectors to create overlapping images that blur boundaries between past and present, and between different geographies. The labyrinthine layout disorients visitors, mirroring the fractured nature of historical time. The review was written by Laurent Buffet for artpress.