Francoise Verges 
Programme of Absolute Disorder [PDF ebook] 
Decolonizing the Museum

A complete overhaul of the Western museum tradition Publishers Weekly An impressive critique of the universal museum as complicit in the damages inflicted by colonial power Isaac Julien, artist and filmmaker Should fascinate anyone interested in social justice, post-colonialism and the arts Euronews Powerful and so relevant Diacritik The Western museum is a battlegrounda 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, Franoise Vergs puts the museum in its place. Exploring the Louvres history, she uncovers the context in which the universal museum emerged: as a product of colonialism, and of Europes self-appointed claim to be the guardian of global heritage.Vergs 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.Franoise Vergs is a political scientist, activist, historian, film writer, and public educator. She is the author of A Decolonial Feminism and A Feminist History of Violence. She is also a senior research fellow at the Sarah Parker Remond Centre for the Study of Racism and Racialisation, University College London.