Artist: DJ Furth
Edition: 1/1
Maxim is an Irkutsk native, filmmaker and explorer. His passion for Siberian nature, adventure, spirituality and filmmaking is infectious and enriching.
He explained that living in southern Siberia has naturally led to a diverse spectrum of faith. “Everyone has their own beliefs here, and sometimes it’s all together at the same time…Spirituality for me is a certain mix of knowledge, legacy and traditions — the knowledge that I acquired, the legacy that concerns me or my family, and the traditions in which I am immersed here.
When asked about the nature of southern Siberia, he told us that “you have to understand that Siberia is no Disneyland. And it’s not that I am trying to scare people off, but Siberia is not about that. You can find more comfortable places, very beautiful places, with much better conditions to have nice holidays.”
As he said, “Here, it’s not about ‘where.’ It’s about ‘why.’”
“Everyone always relies on themselves, because we have a joke that you can go to a grocery store to buy some bread and freeze to death on the way because, well… you are wearing track pants and it’s 40 degrees below zero outside. And that’s why a man always relies first of all on himself. You can’t fool around here.”
We asked Maxim about the shamanic totem poles we had seen along the road and he explained, “On our roads you can indeed very often see the ‘serge,’ the ancestral shamanic columns, the trees tied with colored fabric.”
He sighed and continued, “Every time I have the opportunity to stop at such a place, it’s not enough to just ask for some luck for your journey, it’s also always interesting to observe what you see around you… the birds, the wind, the people, the animals, to listen to yourself, it’s always useful, it’s like a micro-meditation.”