
The Western Museum is an ideological, political, and economic disunity battleground. Calls for its decolonization have washed like great breakers over the institution; almost everyone today wants to "rethink the museum." But how many dare to question the very presuppositions of the universal museum itself? In A Programme of Absolute Disorder, Françoise Vergès puts the museum in its place. With a specific focus on the history of the Louvre, she centers the context in which the universal museum as a product of the Enlightenment and colonialism, of a Europe that presents itself as the guardian of the heritage of all humanity. Discussing the impasses in the representation of slavery and examining unsuccessful attempts to subvert the museum institution, Vergès outlines a radical to decolonize the museum truly is to implement a 'programme of absolute disorder,' inventing other ways of apprehending the human and non-human world that nourish collective creativity and bring justice and dignity to populations who have been dispossessed of it.
Author
Françoise Vergès (born 23 January 1952) is a French political scientist, historian, film producer, independent curator, activist and public educator. Her work focuses on postcolonial studies and decolonial feminism. Vergès was born in Paris, grew up in Réunion and Algeria, before returning to Paris to study and become a journalist. She moved to the US in 1983, studying at the University of California, San Diego and Berkeley.