The Fish-Man
David Wahl had already blown you away with Nos Cœurs en terre and Olivier de Sagazan. This time, he’s back with sculptor Jean-Marie Appriou (he’s the one behind the statues floating in the ponds at ENS Paris-Saclay).
Still fascinated by stories of our origins, he revisits the theory of evolution and takes us back to our aquatic ancestors. Are we still a little bit fish? If we love to swim so much, is it a reminiscence of amniotic fluid, or an even older nostalgia?
Blending science, poetry, and the visual arts, he traces within us the imprint of the ocean—that world we left behind… but never truly forgot.
Created in 2025
In the News
Submerged in a freestanding bathtub, [David Wahl] becomes a mischievous deity concocting whimsical surprises to the sound of lapping water, while steaming foam gradually engulfs the cocoon-like platform where he sits enthroned. Soon surrounded by Jean-Marie Appriou’s hybrid sculptures, David Wahl advances in his biological and cultural exploration of the human species to better connect it with the entire living world. […] His charming fable is an invitation—as erudite as it is sensitive—to learn to admire life in the abyss… so that we may better care for it.
In David Wahl’s highly distinctive writing style, we find that very special pleasure that comes from the elegant coexistence of realities, myths, and legends that could not have come together anywhere else.
David Wahl glides like a dolphin between science and poetic fantasy.
His performance is a journey into our primal history. Almost an amniotic odyssey. […] With this Fish-Man, we [learn] how we transition from land to water, and that we are more like mermaids than we realize. A show that makes us feel right at home, so to speak.
