‘Fort Asperen Ark, A Peter Greenaway Flood Warning’ is the title of the international art exhibition to be held this year in Fort Asperen between 9 June and 24 September. No less a person than the famous English avant-garde artist Peter Greenaway will transform one of the Dutch Water Line forts, Fort Asperen, into a symbolic berth for Noah's Ark from the book of Genesis. This year Stichting Fort Asperen is hosting a unique art exhibition with international appeal, with over 20,000 visitors expected from home and abroad. Well worth a visit, and you should come and be inspired by Greenaway's art. In his unique approach, he uses light, water, colours, the atmosphere of the fort and the story of Noah's ark. Greenaway has invited various artists to work on designing the exhibition.

THE FORT ASPEREN ARK                                                                 
A Peter Greenaway manifestation at Fort Asperen
9 June - 24 September 2006

Fort Asperen can be appreciated as a man-made mountain in a flat landscape prone to flooding. It was built as a fortress to defend a large section of the Dutch landscape against enemies, and to control and supervise the management of the water in the surrounding areas.

A Dutch interpretation of the Genesis myth, where Dutch and Flemish painting have a long tradition of localising Biblical mythology (just think of Breughel), could reasonably see Fort Asperen as a Mount Ararat, the traditional resting place of Noah's Ark after the Flood. But we can also realise Fort Asperen as that legendary place where Noah's preparations to spend forty days and forty nights on the ocean, will begin. 

The project re-interprets the Biblical mythology in Genesis, in a before and after flood situation. We are building Noah¹s Ark, his boat, his Dutch barge, on the roof of the fort in preparation for the next coming Flood.
The polar ice-caps are melting, the world is getting warmer, the sea is rising, and we all know that much of the landscape of the Netherlands is close to, or below sea-level.
Curiously, the Americans, still reluctant to take responsible action in the face of the new climatic changes, have told American businessmen not to invest finance in Holland because within ten years, the Netherlands will be flooded and their investments will be wasted.

We, along with our contemporary Noah, must prepare for the eventualities, taking our example all over again from the Biblical story of the Great Flood. So we build our boat on the roof of Fort Asperen, using all the traditional expertise of Dutch boat-building. And on the deck of the boat, we construct a high platform tower so a visitor can see all the surrounding countryside for many kilometres across the tops of the trees.

Inside the Fort we make many demonstrations of the power and majesty, the master and the servant qualities of water, and we pack for the benefit of Noah and his family and his animals, 92 suitcases to see him physically, intellectually and spiritually safe and comfortable on his long sea journey.

Ninety-two is a powerful number. It is the atomic number of uranium, that element so closely aligned to nuclear fission and the atomic bomb, today¹s obsessional item  - in the year 2006 AD - of world destruction in a way that God¹s flood was the element of destruction around 2006 BC. The Great Biblical Flood saw the end of world civilisation in order to prepare for a restart. If ever the atomic destruction is - Heaven forbid - perpetuated - it will inevitably mean the destruction of world civilisation - and who knows - could there ever be a restart?

Genesis, chapters 6 to 9, states that God ordered Noah to make an Ark of three storeys. Fort Asperen consist of three storeys. In the lower basement cellar floor we have not pumped out the water accumulated throughout the winter, and it remains there, some ten to twenty centimetres deep for all to appreciate the characteristics of flooded buildings, and for visitors to bring or borrow waders to walk in its shallowness. Though a journey through the cellars can be made dry-shod by walking on the duckboards.

This lower storey represents the depths of the swollen seas, with bubbling water, drifting steam and smoke, the sounds of deep-water animals, Noah¹s memory-lists of animals calligraphed on the walls, the original Biblical instructions to Noah painted in phosphorescent light in an inner chamber, and those suitcases  that pertain to such practical matters as lighting the darkness, mastering the floating ship, feeding the crew, shoeing the horses, heating the ark and reminding us of when the waters will again subside and we shall again experience dry land.

The second storey of the fort represents the surface of the sea, affected by the sun¹s nourishing light where seabirds fly and call. Here the suitcases contain fodder for the animals, boots for walking the deck, clean linen, fish for eating on Fridays, toys, the zoo animals in miniature, dead roses to remember those left behind, feathers and eggs for dreams of flying, bibles for instruction and gold paint to thankfully gild the wings of angels.

On this storey is a circle of Dutch water, with samples taken from the surrounding rivers, positioned to be introduced in the coming flood with patterns and systems of light and sound. And here too is a weather machine set in the centre of the fort, a giant screw operated by falling rain and accompanied by turning and flashing lights and the sounds of rain and storm, to demonstrate the mighty whirlpool of weathers that governs all our lives. 

On the third and inner top storey of the fort, representing the winds and airs of the flood waters, accompanied by birdsong and breeze-blown music, is where the Noah family quarters are situated, with Noah¹s study, his carpenter¹s shop, his observatory complete with telescopes, globes, navigational instruments and an afternoon siesta bed, and his bathroom complete with washing lines and bath. On this storey too is an interpretation of God¹s promise not to flood the world again - a manifestation on magic glass of the changing features of the rainbow.

And then atop the whole fort is the boat, Noah's Ark, a grand visual, sculptural, architectural statement - a way of making more than a gesture of aesthetics by uniting ancient iconography (most suitable in a Bible Belt where the mythology is familiar) with all the contemporary anxieties.  It is a fine site-specific gesture - where else could it be more significant - and it provides a great opportunity for uniting the interior with the exterior - insides and outsides - and avoids making the building an arbitrary location for an exhibition.

The location landscape, the building, the building¹s past purposes, the conjured imagery of ubiquitous water, the successful boat hoisted high on the horizon among the tops of the surrounding trees - a most traditional Dutch success story, simply of getting a boat in such a
place - plus the inherent surrealism of the gesture - all conspire to make a most homogenous statement.  And we must remember that Noah, like the Dutch, was thus a master of the waters - a success story.