Practice-Based Research

École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales (EHESS), 2020–2022
Supervised by: Jean-Marc Besse (CNRS)

Porte de la Chapelle is a sound and photography project developed in collaboration with researcher Théo Lenice and teenagers from Porte de la Chapelle, a neighborhood in northeastern Paris.

Between 2020 and 2022, I explored how these young people appropriated and transformed public space — through music, celebration, and everyday rituals. My fieldwork included documenting local rap video shoots, as well as community festivities such as Eid celebrations, offering insight into how youth culture shapes urban identity.

The project culminated in the first edition of the neighborhood block party, Original Chapelle Party.

Some field recordings made with participants were incorporated into the seven-part sound composition Que des bonnes nouvelles, broadcast at Médiathèque Marguerite Duras (Paris) during Les jeux de l’ouïe, curated by electroacoustic composer Gino Favotti.

The research concluded with a multimodal thesis — written, visual, and sonic — titled “Le paysage sonore urbain : enquête et création — Porte de la Chapelle”.

The printing of 25 photographs was funded by the Fonds de participation des habitants du 18e arrondissement de Paris.

The project got support from Camilo Leon-Quijano, Simon Garrette, Pierre-Yves Vandeweerd (EHESS).

Pictures below taken collectively.  

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And this is what your final work testifies to, which hopes that these attachments, however tenuous, will last: Que des bonnes nouvelles. A work that is addressed to others, that speaks of what you have received, and tries to “give,” and hopes that others will continue to “give” to you (the title is almost more important than the process of collecting and recomposing; in any case, it is very meaningful). And I couldn't help but relate this to your own journey, and what you say, incidentally, at the beginning: the fact that Paris is one of the only cities where you feel at home.

Attachment, "[...] the experience, over time, of attachment, its importance for living (in the city), and its fragility: attachment to people in the neighborhood, people's attachment to the neighborhood, your attachment to them, and your attachment to the neighborhood through them; hence the importance of stories, their stories, which are always conversations, that is, ways of being together, and your story, which is very particular, [...] because it is about encounters, brushes, acquaintances, the creation of bonds; and ultimately, what made all this possible was the role of mediators and its gradual transformation, thanks to you and thanks to them.