AVOIR SOIN DES CHOSES BREVES COMME ON AS SOIN DES FLEURS

A photographic project to tell the story of life in the Cité Pierre Sémard, a social housing district desgied in th ‘‘70s by architect Iwona Buczowska.

It is a jewel of wood, gardens and triangular terraces, where a calm reigns unknown to nearby, chaotic Paris.

This collection of photos and writings is part of a larger project, carried out by the Ecole de Paris Belleville together with the Cité inhabitants committee, which opposes the plan to demolish the neighbourhood, foreshadowing new possible scenarios.

I was fascinated by this living and magical place. I experienced this world guided by a group of little girls who took me by the hand and welcomed me into their games.

I listned to the tales that Madame Mogharbi kindly granted me over mint tea.

Amidst the sharp shadows cast on the ground those citizens struggle to defend their part of the world. I think it is a story worth telling.

All thw photos are taken by me with my Minolta SRT101. Afterwards, I developed the negatives, enlarged the images and printed them on photographic paper. Below the scans.

Écho d'après-midi de jeux dans la rue qui pour nous était le monde entier Quand le voyage n’avait pas encore commencé et la vie était toute à inventer.

Echoes of an afternoon playing in the street which for us was the whole world when the journey had not yet begun and life was all to be invented.

Nous ne pensions même pas qu’il y aurait un futur diffèrent de cette rue et de ces nos camarades.

We did not even think there could be a future other from that road and those our comrades.

Et le soir finissait entre deux bras qui étaient, pour nous, maison et amour.

And the evening ended in two arms that were, for us, home and love.