Focus on Housing Projects

At the end of the Second World War, the housing project displays itself as the symbol of a radiant future as evoked by the archeological compositions of Catherine Poncin, the colored postcards of Mathieu Pernot or the romantic portraits of Laurent Kronental. But by the 1980s, these places become emblematic of a social and urban divide reflected in the implosions of Mathieu Pernot or by the detailed examination of the construction sites of the Ile de France Urban Renewal Agency proposed by Adel Tincelin. These poorer suburbs, often stigmatized, can by their very marginality also prove to be places where new ways of living together are invented, as the meetings recounted by Bruno Boudjelal attest. They are, however, constantly redefined as in the images of Alban Lécuyer where private townhouse facades give way to standardized high-rise blocks.