Sanctuary Frozen in Time Sanctuary
A photographic account of a 30,000 km odyssey across Mongolia
When nothing but earth, heaven and nature are the companions of your days and nights,
then life is a wonderful journey into the immensity of true freedom.
Sanctuary Frozen in Time is an exhibition that takes us on a photographic journey throughout Mongolia with Marc Progin leading us on a pilgrimage back to the origins of life, across a vast domain, where nature is the sole landlord and men abide by its laws.
Seen through the eyes of the photographer, Marc Progin, Mongolia is a haven of peace—an asylum for nature, wildlife and human beings living a nomadic life.
A land bathed in an ocean of light, where each second is an eternity and eternity, like a fountain of youth, makes you forget your age.
A land where, in the space of the immensities of light years, as cosmic dust in the universe, you learn what is humility.
A land where nature is virgin and where life follows the cycle of the planets and seasons.
A Sanctuary Frozen in Time where nomads signed a pact to live in harmony with the natural world and settled to live of nothing other than the fruits of mother nature—a heritage that Marc Progin perpetuates through his photography.
Sanctuary Frozen in Time marks Progin’s first solo show with La Galerie Paris 1839 with a selection of fine art prints spanning a period of shooting in Mongolia between 2005 and 2023. Three quarter of the works are completely unseen and even few photographs have been selected as a special preview for his new body of work titled Cretaceous set to be premiered in 2025.
Le sanctuaire figé dans le temps
Récit photographique d’une odyssée de 30,000 km à travers la Mongolie
Quand rien d’autre que la terre, le ciel et la nature accompagnent l’humain, la vie alors n’est plus, sans barrière, sans frontière, qu’un merveilleux voyage dans les immensités de la vraie liberté.
Il est un sanctuaire figé dans le temps, là-bas, en Mongolie, où tout n'est que beauté à l'état d’origine ;où l'homme de la nature au gré des saisons passe, d'une vie atemporelle suit les cycles éternels du mouvement de la terre et celui des planètes.
Il s'agit d'un voyage circulaire sur la terre d'où tout naît, où tout rentre ; voyage photographique avec Marc Progin, qui en pèlerinage nous guide aux origines de la vie de ce monde, là où la nature seule est la propriétaire, d'un espace infini sans barrière, ni frontière, où les hommes nomades ne sont que de passage, et respecte les lois d'un pacte naturel.
Une terre sauvage, splendide, baignée dans une mer infinie de lumière, où le temps ne se compte, où chaque moment est une seconde d'éternité et l'éternité, telle une fontaine de jouvence, efface les traces de l'âge.
Une terre où dans l'espace sans fin d'années-lumière, l’homme n’est rien, rien d'autre qu'une poussière dans le vaste univers. C’est ainsi qu'il apprend ce qu'est l'humilité.
À travers le regard de Marc Progin, le photographe, le sanctuaire mongol est un havre de paix, un asile pour la faune, la nature et le peuple des pasteurs sans racines autres que celles de leur terre d'origine. Un sanctuaire figé hors des frontières du temps, où les nomades vivent du cordon qui les lient à la terre, l'univers, surtout à la nature et à ses vraies valeurs.
Un héritage unique que depuis 25 ans Marc Progin perpétue par la photographie.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Marc Progin (b.1945) is a Swiss adventurer, photographer, and writer often travelling in space, mainly the one of Mongolia, since retired from time and being a watchmaker.
Struck by the light and the beauty of the country, he became a photographer to give evidence of his odysseys to Mongolia. But it is from his physical performance that the artistic one is generated.
A seasoned long-distance runner, he is tough enough to power himself and his bike for months long off-road journeys and his mind travelling.
He designs his own maps, navigates with the sun, the stars, and a compass in all four seasons, trading his bike for hiking boots and camels when tackling ice, snow, and blizzards during his winter trips.
Endurance leads him to a more fundamental, inner and cultural quest. The exploration of Mongolia, the original nature where the nomads live differently, without possessions, gives meaning to his life. He travels the deserts with minimal logistics. He explores its history and its paleontological treasures. At this cradle of dinosaurs, he borrows what becomes his nickname: “velociraptor”, named after a species of which he found fossilised remains. Lover of words, erudite, the traveller fills page after page of notebooks with illuminated poetry. His “Alexandrine” verses celebrate the beauty of Mongolian landscapes. They also tell of the spiritual quest of a man tired by the superficiality and illusions imposed by business, consumption and “connected” society. Marc Progin photographs to convey what he feels. In the bareness and the effort, in contact with emptiness and immensity, he clings to what he is, a being reduced to its vital needs: light, a little water and food.
Through his various projects, Marc Progin gives us beautiful testimonies of what his heart sees in nature and human beings.
Marc Progin’s work has been shown in numerous solo and group exhibitions, most recently at Hong Kong Blue Lotus Gallery HK, City University of Hong Kong Indra and Harry Banga Gallery, the HK Foreign Correspondent’s Club, the HK Heritage Project, and Palais de la Porte Dorée Paris. He also gives regular talks at the Royal Geographical Society, universities, and schools in Switzerland and Hong Kong.
