Traversées — 70 Years, 70 Buildings

“TRAVERSÉE” offers an overview of 70 years of social housing production in France, through a selection of 70 buildings designed and built by the various subsidiaries of the Action Logement group. The exhibition takes visitors on a journey through time and across the French landscape, while also capturing the present moment — as all photographs were taken during spring 2023 by photographer Antoine Séguin. The images are displayed on double-sided steles, inviting visitors to view the panorama from multiple perspectives. The radical simplicity of these steles — designed by young designer Léonard Kadid and crafted by Perron et Frères — evokes the essential nature of housing itself. Installed on two parallel rows on either side of the Pavillon Baltard in Neuilly-sur-Marne, the scenography creates both open vistas and a sense of inhabited depth. Conceived as a symbolic handover between outgoing and incoming members of the group’s governance, this exhibition is a traversée — a crossing — from which we hope visitors emerge inspired, just as social housing in France has continually reinvented itself to remain legitimate.

Concept and scenography: AHA (Annabelle Hagmann, Maud Yvon, Angélique Pagnon)
Photography: Antoine Séguin Stele design: Léonard Kadi Fabrication: Perron & Frères