Vidéo, colour, sound, 51 min.

Watch the movie. (restricted access)

Built in 1965, Les Bosquets housing estate with its 1,075 apartments is located 15 km from Paris in the “Le Plateau” neighbourhood of Clichy-sous-Bois/ Montfermeil. The abandonment in 1985 of the project to build the A87 motorway linking Roissy and Marne-la-Vallée led the housing estate to become even more marginalised (it takes ninety minutes to reach Paris by public transport), thwarting local economic development. In 2002, a massive stateled urban renewal scheme got underway, entailing large-scale demolition, rebuilding, renovation and urban improvement.
The epitome of a rundown residential area with problems no amount of urban planning can resolve, the neighbourhood saw riots break out in 2005, along with media overexposure and stigmatisation of its inhabitants.
In 2009, in the wake of a “literal collapse for the inhabitants most of whom have already experienced at least one major relocation in their lives”, Florence Lazar chose to follow the lives of a group of residents, including a woman who runs the evicted tenants association. In an urban environment devastated by demolition, the artist provided a carpet on which women would come to recount and discuss their lives on the estate. The carpet symbolises an imaginary garden in the domestic environment. Here, transposed to a public space surrounded by demolition, it became an imaginary dwelling, visible and intimate, capable of receiving the words of its inhabitants.


Cinematography: Nicolas Guichetau
Assistant director : Grégory Cohen
Sound: Jocelyn Robert
Editing: Julien Lousteau
Sound editing: Josefina Rodriguez
Sound mixing: Emmanuel Croset
With the support of d’Image/mouvement – Centre national des arts plastiques, Paris
Centre national des arts plastiques, Paris

Read an essay by Giovanna Zapperi