La Baraque, utopian yesterday, pionneer today
In 2025, the alternative neighborhood of La Baraque in Louvain-la-Neuve celebrates its 50th anniversary. Through an exhibition and a book, I take an intimate look at the neighborhood where I lived for 20 years.
The photos, taken between 2010 and 2015, immerse us in a period marked by contrasting emotions. As a photographer, resident, and father, I felt, on the one hand, the joy of exploring the Baraque through the eyes of my two daughters and the neighborhood children, and on the other, the anxiety of the imminent destruction of part of the neighborhood to make way for a vast real estate project.
A decade later, the residents’ testimonies reveal what my images implicitly suggested. The children, now adults, recount their happy adventures, while the adults express their pain and helplessness in the face of the inevitability of change.
With 50 years of community life, La Baraque has become an icon of alternative housing, recognized as a model of urban quality of life both for the originality of its homes and the care taken with its environment. La Baraque is more than just a neighborhood; it is a symbol of resistance and resilience.
This project pays tribute to the creative and indomitable spirit of its inhabitants, who call themselves, not without irony, the “Baraki.e.s.” Once perceived as utopian, the Baraque has today become a pioneer in the art of light living and coexistence.
The 59 photographs of the exhibition were taken on color and black & white film with a Mamya RB67 camera, printed on Fine Arte Canson Prestige Baryta paper and mounted on Dibond.
Photographs, design and production: Reynald Halloy
https://reynaldhalloy.be/expo-et-livre-photos-la-baraque/
