Le Val Fourré is a housing project built in 1959 in a suburb of Paris. The site’s original utopian desires for its diverse, working-class demographic have been marred by political riots and partial demolition. Laure Tixier initiated a project focussing on the history of one of the most troubled parts of the estate, Radar. Tixier worked with the architectural plans from 1972 onwards, exploring the mutations the site has undergone. She invited six local women to embroider phases of Radar’s transformation (from 1972, 2000, 2005, 2006, 2007 and 2014) asking the woman to work in a collective studio to share techniques and exchange memories, shifting as they stitched between their own experience and the history of Val Fourré. Tixier’s process forces contact and collaboration in a place whose social and architectural dimension makes communication difficult.
30 Août 2016
Radar au fil du temps
2014
Embroiderers: Fadma Bamarouf (1972), Sylvie Ziane (2000), Fatima Ouahid (2005), Jemia Chelkine (2006), Hasna Bamarouf (2007), Naïma Guessouss (2014)
Séries of 6 embroideries, texte
fabric, thread and perls [6x] 40 x 31 cm
Le Val Fourré is a housing project built in 1959 in a suburb of Paris. The site’s original utopian desires for its diverse, working-class demographic have been marred by political riots and partial demolition. Laure Tixier initiated a project focussing on the history of one of the most troubled parts of the estate, Radar. Tixier worked with the architectural plans from 1972 onwards, exploring the mutations the site has undergone. She invited six local women to embroider phases of Radar’s transformation (from 1972, 2000, 2005, 2006, 2007 and 2014) asking the woman to work in a collective studio to share techniques and exchange memories, shifting as they stitched between their own experience and the history of Val Fourré. Tixier’s process forces contact and collaboration in a place whose social and architectural dimension makes communication difficult.