The right to roam

Anyone who tries to cross the Mediterranean today, or even travel on foot, by bike or on horseback, will see that the territory is closing in, both through its physical layout and through the law.

This movement is part of a centuries-old trend. Since the dawn of modernity, there has been a progressive ban on the right to roam and subsist freely on the land.

From an ecological and ethical point of view, however, it is vital to rediscover a world that is porous and traversable, both for humans and for other living beings.

The very notion of right – the Greek nomos – which refers to a grazing area, has been interpreted in modern times as enclosure. But it is just as legitimate to conceive of it as a shared, common space.

Under the aegis of the god Hermes, this free collection takes us to medieval villages and countryside, along the GR2013 in Marseille, to the Villa Borghese in Rome – echoing a photographic essay by Geoffroy Mathieu.