It all began in 2003 when a helicopter broke down in Mali. Yann Arthus-Bertrand met a man who started to tell him about his life, his desires and ambitions. From this chance encounter stemmed the desire to use video to find out and capture what the world's people had to say. This was the starting point of the Six billion others project, undertaken with Sybille d'Orgeval and Baptiste Rouget-Luchaire. Six reporters set out to meet the "other people" in 75 countries, and came back with 5,000 video portraits. From a Brazilian fisherman to an Australian lawyer, a German artist to an Afghan farmer, all were invited to answer the same set of questions: "What did you learn from your parents? What would you like to pass on to your children? What challenges have you had to face? What does love to mean to you?"
From this wealth of footage, twenty hours of videos were selected and screened at the Grand Palais in yurts
constructed specially in the Nave. The thousands of faces form a journey into the heart of humanity, and provide an opportunity to consider together our human and cultural diversity, while at the same time creating a deeper understanding of what we all share. This celebration of fraternity perfectly reflects the values embodied in the Nave of the Grand Palais.
