Paris Goutte d’Or

By Elena Perlino, Editions Loco, Paris, 2018. Original Edition, Text in French, 204 pages, 16 x 11 cm. Condition : Excellent.

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Elena Perlino, an Italian photographer recently living in Paris, immersed herself in a district of the 18th arrondissement well known to Parisians: Goutte-d’Or. It is one of the strong points of the capital, characterized by a multi-ethnic mix where, on a few streets, more than thirty different ethnic groups, Muslims and non-Muslims, rub shoulders; a small territory with around thirty thousand inhabitants. Elena Perlino thus lived and shared the daily life of the inhabitants of Goutte-d’Or, as close as possible to them, in a public but also private sphere. From home to mosque, from hidden places to small businesses of all kinds, from wedding parties to large religious gatherings. She brought back after more than three years of immersion, a masterful document illustrating, far from the image usually heard of a neighborhood considered rather dangerous, a certain social cohesion. Christians, Muslims, Jews and Hindus share a relatively narrow geographical space in the Goutte d’Or. Families from Algeria, Congo, Bosnia, Senegal, Italy, Sri Lanka, Mali and Ivory Coast live close to each other. This book takes a fresh look at neighborhoods that have been described as “ghettoized,” and does not focus exclusively on aspects of radicalization. It allows us to imagine that a certain “living together” is possible.