For several years now, thanks to photography, Laurent Nicourt has been making a little more sustainable what is not at all, ie the makeshift houses in inner Paris. Far from being a recent phenomenon, these ephemeral architectures certainly testify to the misery of their architect but also become, through the materials used, urban markers of the capital.
Exhibited at the Urban Eye festival, at the Cosmo Arles Book during the Arles meetings, right here two years ago, Laurent Nicourt presents some new makeshift homes among the 160 already photographed.
“There is no architecture in Paris more ephemeral than these makeshift houses. A gust of wind, a burst of rain, sometimes even a kick will get the better of these shelters made of poverty, recuperation, resourcefulness but above all instinct. That of surviving and staying in “dry”, “warm” conditions, out of sight, one more day, one more night.
Keeping a photographic trace of these cardboard walls is, perhaps, to make them a little more solid, a little more durable, a little more visible and even guilt-inducing.
Georges Eugène Haussmann, Hector Guimard, Jean Nouvel… the Paris of the avenues had its great architects, the Paris of hidden nooks its poor architects. ”
Instagram account: @maisonsdefortune
