“In the Flood myth common to various different cultural traditions, the jubilant gure of Noah embodies a kind of breakthrough in humanity’s history. In summing up the past and preparing us for the future, Noah symbolises the coming of a new and better world. This second Creation erases the rst, which has been wrought by the machinations of evil and humanity’s degeneration. This is a new Adam, drawn from water rather than the earth, who, in Genesis, acts rst as a mortal and then a symbol of life because, upon leaving the womb and cradle that is the Ark, Noah and his offspring will repopulate the world.

This epic tale is one in a long line of similar stories and can be interpreted on several levels. Saint Augustin sought to show that the Ark’s proportions were the same as the human body’s, “which is also the body of Christ, which is also the Church”, while Paul Claudel saw the salvational Ark as a cathedral, its nave the prow of a ship navigating the heavens.

We might also imagine Noah as humanity collectively seeking refuge within itself to cast off a past existence and start afresh, mining the abyss of its own being for new sources of energy. That is why, with the exception of the dove - a sign of hope in a new life -, we will not board all the animals. Instead, the movement of humanity will be represented by the symbolic, dancing gure of Noah beneath the light of a new sun.”

Thierry Malandain