In Lorraine, the valley of the Meuse, of Mouzon and Vair, is a calm and wise ground that carries in it the memories of a thousand-year-old civilisation, as testified by the archaeological site of Grand. But it is also that of Joan of Arc, folk heroine of French history. The site of Domremy-la-Pucelle constitutes one of the large tourist poles of the Vosgean West. The Department, owner of the native house of Joan of Arc since 1818 decided the construction of a Joan Centre, marking the European dimension of the character.

an intention

Lorraine landscape, France. Photo J.M.Bodson

An unusual place, Joan Centre is neither a museum nor an arts centre in the classical sense of the term. The ensemble of installations it offers to the public was conceived by a team of theatre people, visual artists, musicians, professionals of artistic lights and printers who created under the supervision of Anne-Marie Simon-Parneix a universe where voice is given both to Joan herself and to the witnesses who spoke about her.

Photo J.M. Bodson

Audio-visual and permanent exhibits are based on rigorous documentary and historical research founded on texts by authors, historians, playwrights, poets, and philosophers of different epochs. Two creative texts appear on the course, one in the exhibition for the space of the Room of Kings, the other in the audio-visual one for the sequence "the King". In both cases, it is the political point of view of those in power that is in question, the dynastic imbroglio between French and English, the adventures of the civil war that divides the family of France, between the House of Orleans and the House of Burgundy.

Lorraine landscape, France. Photo J.M.Bodson

"The intention is indeed not to explain Joan but on the contrary to let her have her mystery. Putting stereotypes aside requires going beyond her, to the origins of the One-hundred-year war. But it also means to project oneself after her, to immerse oneself in all that was said, written, played, filmed, painted, drawn, carved: all these works, all these debates, these praises, these devotions or these denigrations, which do not cease keeping the polemic around her open."