Description
by Verges, Francoise | France
Published 20/07/2024 by Pluto Press in the United Kingdom
Hardback | 224 pages, 6 Halftones, black and white
‘A complete overhaul of the Western museum tradition’ – Publishers Weekly
The Western museum is a battleground – a terrain of ideological, political and economic contestation. Almost everyone today wants to rethink the museum, but how many have the audacity to question the idea of the universal museum itself? In A Programme of Absolute Disorder, Françoise Vergès puts the museum in its place. Exploring the Louvre’s history, she uncovers the context in which the universal museum emerged: as a product of colonialism, and of Europe’s self-appointed claim to be the guardian of global heritage.
Vergès outlines a radical horizon: to truly decolonize the museum 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 the dispossessed.
