• Four families from the Charles Grosperrin building bar in Aubervilliers have given their consent for an exhibition to retrace their respective histories.

  • The exhibition

    “HLM life.

    Stories of inhabitants of popular housing.

    Aubervilliers, 1950-2000 ”

    opens to the public from October 16, 2021 until June 30, 2022.

  • The exhibition will be located in two apartments in the heart of the city of Emile Dubois, using period furniture to allow total immersion.

A lookout carried by historians. Perched at the top of the HLM Grosperrin bar, the HQ of Amulop stands, its windows wide open on the city of Emile Dubois in Aubervilliers (Seine-Saint-Denis). In this housing converted into an associative office, the members of the Association pour un Musée du Logement Populaire (AmuLoP) discuss, question and rethink their exhibition project. The concept, consisting in recreating the homes of four families from the residence through an immersive exhibition, is based on a clever mix of research and cooperation.

"We wanted to start from the history of a few people and then expand into a broader context, namely the history of working-class neighborhoods in the second half of the 20th century," explains Muriel Cohen, History teacher at Maurice Utrillo high school. from Stains (Seine-Saint-Denis).

Because the Amulop collective, made up mostly of History-Geography teachers, intends to put some order in the representations that stick to the skin of these territories lacking recognition.

The idea arises from the visit of an American museum

To get to the target of attention, you have to go down the stairwell of the building, walk along the few meters separating from the adjoining row of apartments, before reaching number 176. Inside, we can distinguish some of the furniture collected thanks to the cooperation of individuals or via purchases on the leboncoin platform. "Part of the exhibition will recreate the atmosphere of the 1960s, while others recall the 1980s and 2000s", explains Aurélien Fayet, director of the association.

“Originally, we were a group of friends who are researchers and professors of History-Geography,” recalls Gaïd Andro, lecturer in History at the University of Nantes (ESPE) and secretary of the association.

“When we visited the American Tenement Museum in New York, we were all struck by American museography, its immersion with its touching life stories.

From there came the idea of ​​making a museum on the history of popular housing in France, without resorting to the slogans of the Anglo-Saxon approach, ”observes Gaïd Andro.

The exhibition is thus conceived as a springboard towards the project of a permanent museum in the heart of the city.

A project supported by many actors

The Convergences Migrations Institute funded the postdoctoral fellowship of the head of research at AmuLoP, Muriel Cohen. And it is in the accommodation provided by the Public Housing Offices that the exhibition is timidly taking shape. Without forgetting public aid: winner of a pedagogical innovation day award, AmuLoP benefits from support from the deposit and consignment office (CDC), and the town hall of Aubervilliers. By opening access to the municipal archives, the city provides a valuable source of information for those who want to unravel the mysteries of these walls built in 1957.

Main target audience: schoolchildren, who will participate in workshops designed to initiate them into historical research work. "A video game is in preparation" smiles Muriel. And to address a young audience, one of the strengths of the ephemeral exhibition seems to lie in the presence of guide guides, currently trained in storytelling around the exhibition. "I immediately joined," said Houda, one of the guides living in Bobigny. “Being born in Morocco, popular representations often seemed offbeat to me. Here there is a real scientific context. I have the feeling that the exhibition traces the story of my parents and friends, in a larger story. I find that extraordinary. "

  • Exhibition "HLM life.

    Stories of inhabitants of popular housing.

    Aubervilliers, 1950-2000 ”from October 16, 2020 to June 30, 2022. 9 Allée Charles Grosperrin, 93300 Aubervilliers

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  • HLM

  • Exposure

  • Museum

  • Aubervilliers

  • Paris