Booklaunch: The Girl Who Crossed the River with a Tablecloth

Lara Bongard inherited a 100 year old Shabbat tablecloth, the only surviving heirloom from the vanished world of her ancestors, with which her great-grandfather Mordko Bongard crossed the river of his shtetl in 1911 and never returned. He left his family and community, to escape the pogroms that swept the regions. Lara embarked on an extensive research into the scattered history of her family in the previous Russian Empire (present-day Ukraine). She retraced family members, collected testimonies, photographs, letters and archival material, researched Yiddish tales, symbols and mythologies — in order to reconstruct her own image of the past. The tablecloth grew into a symbol of life: sharing food with family across time, connecting East with West, the generations, and diversity of cultures they as a family represent. Gradually, dislocation became a portable home.

‘The Girl Who Crossed the River with a Tablecloth’ is a multidimensional work and dynamic space of memory, in which fictional stories about the lives of her ancestors are written in conjunction with the ancient Hebrew lunar calendar, travel stories and memories, photographs and illustrations. The project contributes to generating new connecting narratives about the fluid meaning of being 'at home' in our contemporary world and reframing perspectives on multiple histories and identity. ‘The Girl Who Crossed the River with a Tablecloth’ was presented at the Kunstkabinet of the Jewish Museum in Amsterdam, taking place from 22.04 – 01.10.2023.

Lara Bongard & Maurits de Bruijn

Lara Bongard is an artist and writer. Her multi-disciplinary practise involves in-depth research around questions of self-identity and cultural heritage. Through transhistorical research, she merges and fuses ancient narratives and symbolisms to create new stories and images. Her work aims to challenge our relationship to the past and acknowledge the multiplicity of stories and histories that constitute our identity. Questioning who we are and where we belong.

Maurits de Bruijn is a writer and editor at the art magazine Mister Motley. His articles and short stories have been published in De Volkskrant, Elle, and Das Magazin. His debut novel, "Broer," was published in 2012, and "De achterkant van de zon" was released in January 2016. In April 2020, "Ook mijn Holocaust" was published, in which Maurits conducted research into the impact of his mother's wartime past on his upbringing and life trajectory.

About the book 

• Order

Practical

• Publisher: Art Paper Editions
• Year of Publication: 2023
• 17 × 24 cm, 272 p, American dustjacket
• ISBN 9789464665178
• design and editing: Lara Bongard & Lien Van Leemput for 6'56"
• language: English
• Edition of 750

This publication was made possible with the generous support of the AFK (Amsterdam Fund for the Arts), LUCA break-out, Stichting Stokroos, Stichting Niemeijer Fonds, Hendrik Mullerfonds, Prins Bernhard Cultuurfonds, Voordekunst crowdfunding platform, and Retian Nopra Holding B.V.