6 billion Others

For more than 10 years, Yann Arthus-Bertrand has been drawing a portrait of the planet through his aerial pictures. These years of travel and world’s overflights have given him a global vision of the world and its borders. Nonetheless, very quickly, Yann Arthus-Bertrand felt something missing in this universal testimony : the word of Man. To collect the experience and philosophy of the life of the world’s inhabitants through filmed interviews was then the following stage.


6 billion others
Hochgeladen von GoodPlanet. - Unabhängige Web Videos. 

Such is the objective of “6 billion Others”, a project carried out by Sibylle d’Orgeval and Baptiste Rouget-Luchaire and presented to the general public within the framework of an exhibition at the Grand Palais, from the 10th of January to the 12th of February 2009.

With this intention, several cameramen traveled to 75 countries in 4 years to interview the inhabitants of the Earth. The questions which were retained are those which touch Humanity, everywhere, and since always. These portraits are so individualistic that highlight the universality. They provoke, touch and push to self-questioning. These meetings add great value because of their diversity, reflections and perspectives, which they open.

Do we aspire to the same happiness ? Are we confronted with the same problems ?

If the material disparities and cultural diversities between men are striking at first sight, a community of concerns remains, such as learning, loving, creating…

The visitors can then go to the meeting of “6 billion Others” by listening to their filmed testimonies in their original language (translation in French and English of the whole of the interviews).

The heart of the exhibition consists of projections of faces on a central mosaic or, in a more intimist way, in spaces of projection including 1 to 14 screens, propitious places for confidence. The visitor discovers the whole of the lightest to the deepest words collected (convictions, beliefs, laughter, songs, moving anecdotes…).

Transported by the emotion towards more reflection, the public walks alongside the time of an exhibition of the human beings that they would have probably never had the opportunity to meet.


The visitors can also form integral part of these “6 billion Others”.

Anyone who wishes to answer these important questions can also do it and thus come to enrich this great project with their testimony.

This interactive aspect can be found on the internet site www.6billionothers.org. It shows all the video montages featured in the exhibition, as well as integral portraits of interviewed people and the project’s inside story thanks to its “making of”.

In an educational and awareness large-scale concern, a part of the exhibition can be adapted to scholars in collaboration with the Ligue de l’Enseignement (Education Network in France).

Visit the official site of 6 billion Others

Buch auf Deutsch:
Einer unter 6 Milliarden. Was Menschen erleben, träumen und hoffen (Knesebeck Verlag)
Leseprobe