Jean-Yves Jouannais - Hors les murs MOAB

Based on a script by Jean-Yves Jouannais

MOAB, which stands for Mother of All the Battles, a saga in 10 chants, is the story of a single battle pieced together with quotes from books on war from all eras and horizons.

For the last 10 years, writer and art critic Jean-Yves Jouannais has been working on an endless project to compile an Encyclopedia of Wars at regular public meetings he holds at the Centre Pompidou. MOAB is a product of this endeavor. A saga in 10 chants, MOAB (Mother of All the Battles) is the story of an imaginary battle for all eternity. The words come from a compilation of some 1,000 quotes from war books – collections of poems, novels, technical and historical books, letters from soldiers – from ancient times to the present. The result is a patchwork of language in a variety of styles with inconsistent grammar and multiple tenses that bears witness to the never-ending nature of war. Readers, singers, actors and musicians take on the epic poem where each chant is spoken, sung or narrated and depicts a moment or part of the battle. A unique offsite Nomadic Night at Les Invalides where the audience walks around from the Cour d’Honneur to the Church of the Dome (the tomb of Napoleon), past the galleries and the stunning collections on display in the musée de l’Armée.