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 emerged: 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 horizon: 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.