From the outside it was a normal building. 168 one-room dwellings, inhabited by newly arrived immigrants to Paris. Mid-nineteenth century tenants were rural French, followed by Belgians, Italians, Eastern European Jews, Spaniards, Portuguese, repatriates, North Africans,Senegalese and finally Malians.
By 1998 the building had become the largest slum house in Paris. Its 350 occupants blocked the street four months with a protesting camp,the rundown tenement was bought and torn-down by city authorities.
How to capture a demolished building on film? What marks does it leave ? Tracking down vestiges of the tenement is like raising it from the rubble. A house of blueprints and photos inhabited by the testimonials of its inhabitants.