Mongolia
Nomads, Caravans & Migrations
For months at a time during each of the past 14 years, Marc has abandoned urban civilization to ride his bicycle across a land bereft of borders and fences on journeys spanning 17,000 kilometres. In all four seasons, he has spent between 10 to 14 hours per day climbing hundreds of lofty passes, crossing the gigantic steppe and Altaï and Kanghai mountains and cutting through Siberian forests and the 33 deserts that form the Mongolian Gobi. Marc has encountered all of Mongolia’s ethnic groups, most of them of Türk and Mongol origin, learning the sense of humility that comes from living in simple, harsh yet strikingly beautiful surroundings.
This photographic tale takes us out of time into a realm of space, light and liberty. It represents an odyssey into a natural world far removed from the superficialities of today’s society, outlining a simple formula to healthy, free and happy living.
Sherperdess of your flock and of eternity,
will you be the heiress of our humanity;
the guidance of our truth and of those
simple values from the past which today,
in the city, are scorned by our society?
Pastourelle des troupeaux et de l’éternité
Seriez-vous l’héritière de notre humanité,
La gardienne des valeurs, vraies et simples du passé
Qu’aujourd’hui, à la ville, méprisent les sociétés ?
In the heart of the Altaï mountains,
the Kazakhs live in humility under their roof of a thousand years, the stars ;
a timeless shelter where, faithful to their traditions,
as host and servant they welcome the traveller.
Au coeur des monts Altaï vivent humbles les Kazakhs,
Sous les étoiles, leurs millénaire bivouac;
Une auberge du temps qu’en hôte et serviteur,
Fidèles aux traditions ils ouvrent aux voyageurs.
Away from societies, free from its servitudes,
mankind was wandering, in total liberty, happy in solitude.
Loin de la société, franc de ses servitudes,
L’homme s’allait libre, heureux, au fond des solitudes.
There is on earth but one single, unique space
where the human, the animal and nature live and pass on
forming a single and simple family
whose harmony questions the folly of our plodding decadence.
Il est sur cette terre un seul, unique, espace
Où l’humain, l’animal, la nature vivent et passent
Formant une seule et simple famille dont l’harmonie
Questionne la déraison de notre lente agonie.
