Mikael Levin's Thresholds at Galerie Gilles Peyroulet & Cie

Mikael Levin's exhibition at Galerie Gilles Peyroulet & Cie in Paris from April 12 to May 31, 2008, explores the concept of the threshold through black-and-white photographs and two videos. The Franco-American artist treats the threshold not as a static separation but as a dynamic relationship with time and space, opening onto history and imagination. In the video "Long View" (2008), an empty room is shown; the slow transition between images, where a new image appears as the previous one fades, inverts conventional cinematic technique. Instead of a continuous flow, the film is made of still photographs artificially linked, presenting the present as a duration that grounds our experience of temporality. The series "Borders" features four images taken along France's eastern border, such as "Schreckling" (1993), where a customs office window reflects the landscape of the departing country while showing the entering country, linking here and elsewhere. "Walking City" (1997) shows flowers at a street corner, bringing countryside into the city, and three hands in tension suggest imminent decision and action, leaving the outcome to the viewer's imagination. A gentle melancholy pervades these works, capturing the fragile, sublime passage where anything can emerge and disappear.