Conference | Anne Simon

A precarious lifeboat, Noah's ark tossed about by the waters is at the center of a crucial episode in Genesis: when it finally opens, God promises never to unleash another flood. The sign of his covenant with all living creatures, humans and animals alike, will be the rainbow. From his paintings to his stained glass windows and poems, Chagall's work endlessly explores the major themes of the biblical flood. What do the figures of Noah releasing a dove or sleeping under a rainbow, sometimes white, sometimes colorful, tell us? How does the interior of the ark lead us to other, more maternal images? What do the blue silhouettes carried away by the waves, the geometric shapes, and the ladders that structure the compositions evoke? Spanning history between disaster and hope, Chagall's ark could well be a form of memory, connecting his era to more ancient times.

Anne Simon is a research director at the CNRS and a professor in the Literature and Language department at the École normale supérieure–Paris Sciences et Lettres. She is head of the International Center for the Study of contemporary French philosophy and her Philo-FR blog. A specialist in animal studies (Animots blog) and ecological humanities, she co-directs the Biennale du vivant and published Une bête entre les lignes in 2021. Essai de zoopoétique (A Beast Between the Lines: An Essay in Zoopoetics). Her work also focuses on Proust (La Rumeur des distances traversées, 2018; Trafics de Proust, 2016; Proust ou le réel retrouvé, 2000) and the relationships between myths, arts, and literature.

Discover our 2025-26 lecture series

This lecture series is a co-production of the Musées nationaux du XXe siècle des Alpes-Maritimes and the Direction de la Culture de Université Côte d’Azur, in partnership with the CRHI - Centre de Recherches en Histoire des Idées, and with the support of the association des amis du musée national Marc Chagall.

Photo : © DR, 2025