A Programme of Absolute Disorder
Decolonizing the Museum
Published on 20. July 2024
Book
Hardback
224 pages
978-0-7453-4961-9 (ISBN)
Description
'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, Francoise Verges 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.
Verges 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.
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, Francoise Verges 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.
Verges 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.
Reviews / Votes
'A complete overhaul of the Western museum tradition' -- <i>Publishers Weekly</i> 'An impressive critique of the universal museum as complicit in the ongoing damages inflicted by colonial power structures. Francoise Verges gives us the tools to harness our imagination in order to build new art institutions for a different future.' -- Isaac Julien, filmmaker and installation artist 'A thought-provoking demonstration that should fascinate anyone interested in social justice, post-colonialism and the arts' -- <i>Euronews</i> 'Verges offers, in the wake of Frantz Fanon, a powerful reflection ... The Western museum is a tool of domination which must be deconstructed in a post-racist and post-capitalist world. Powerful and so relevant' -- <i>Diacritik</i> 'The post-museum era has come. Museums without objects, museums of the present, living museums, museums of oral speech, museums of the great disorders of the world... There is no shortage of ideas for those who still know how to dream' -- <i>Hors-Serie</i> 'Enacting the decolonial task to imagine and practice a post museum, Verges also enacts the gargantuan task of a post historical, post epistemic archive. This obliges the absolute disorder of the structures of thought and feeling that sustain the impossibility of history and knowledge unoccupied by the modern archive. Showing it should be done, Verges offers creative joyful relentlessness towards decolonial worlds.' -- Marisol de la Cadena, Professor of Anthropology, Science & Technology Studies,University of California, Davis 'A brilliant book on how to order the disorder of colonized spaces while finding new pathways to discuss what it means to question rage and embrace new narratives on the once invisible structures of museums. Francoise Verges skillfully writes a manifesto of sorts that shifts the paradigm and re-imagines a world as if there was no West with a curious wit, fearless irony, and a clear sense of underpinning hope.' -- Deborah Willis, artist, New York University 'One of the greatest thinkers of our time, surprises us again with a brilliant work on decolonising the museum. Francoise Verges demonstrates how insidiously the museum contemplates a colonial order, and offers an intelligent, critical and vivid new approach. A Programme of Absolute Disorder is a masterpiece required reading' -- Grada Kilomba, interdisciplinary artist and writer 'Proposes a root-and-branch decolonisation of the institution of the museum' -- <i>The Bookseller</i>More details
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Product notice
Library binding
With dust jacket
Illustrations
6 Halftones, black and white
Dimensions
Height: 239 mm
Width: 159 mm
Thickness: 25 mm
Weight
418 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-7453-4961-9 (9780745349619)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Book
approx. 10/2026
Pluto Press (UK)
€18.50
Not yet published
E-Book
07/2024
1st Edition
Pluto Press
€24.49
Available for download
Persons
Francoise Verges is a political scientist, activist, historian, film writer, and public educator. She is the author of A Decolonial Feminism, A Feminist History of Violence and A Programme of Absolute Disorder. She is also a senior research fellow at the Sarah Parker Remond Centre for the Study of Racism and Racialisation, University College London. She lives in Paris.
Melissa Thackway is an independent researcher and translator. She lectures in African Cinema at Sciences-Po and INALCO in Paris. Her recent translations include A Feminist Theory of Violence by Francoise Verges, Contemporary African Cinema by Olivier Barlet, Tropical Dream Palaces: Cinema-Going in Colonial West Africa by Odile Goerg and African Diasporic Cinema: Aesthetics of Reconstruction by Daniela Ricci.
Melissa Thackway is an independent researcher and translator. She lectures in African Cinema at Sciences-Po and INALCO in Paris. Her recent translations include A Feminist Theory of Violence by Francoise Verges, Contemporary African Cinema by Olivier Barlet, Tropical Dream Palaces: Cinema-Going in Colonial West Africa by Odile Goerg and African Diasporic Cinema: Aesthetics of Reconstruction by Daniela Ricci.
Content
Preface
Introduction
1. A Programme of Absolute Disorder
2. The Museum: A Battlefield
3. The Louvre, Napoleon, Capture, the Slave
4. Black is the model, white the frame
5. A Museum without Objects
Epilogue: Decolonial Tactics
Notes
Introduction
1. A Programme of Absolute Disorder
2. The Museum: A Battlefield
3. The Louvre, Napoleon, Capture, the Slave
4. Black is the model, white the frame
5. A Museum without Objects
Epilogue: Decolonial Tactics
Notes