A boatload of pilgrims

The royal residence at Loches is also an art gallery. Interspersed with the historical artifacts throughout the château is an ever-changing exhibit of various art works. The current installation is a very contemporary set of mostly abstract pieces. This is one of the less abstract ones that I saw.

There's quite a bit of detail on those figurines. Click to artify.

It's called "Nave de pèlerins" by Hélène Sellier-Duplessis. Pèlerins means pilgrims, usually of the religious variety. Nave, on the other hand, is tricky. I couldn't find it in any of my usual dictionaries or online. Since these pilgrims are standing in what looks like a boat, I supposed it comes from either navire (ship) or navette (shuttle). I finally looked in the Grand Robert (the unabridged dictionary) and discovered that the word is an archaic literary form of the word navire.

Some of the pilgrims look like humans dressed as animals. Others look like actual animals. I have no idea what is going on or what this is meant to evoke. Such is my artistic sensibility.