A Programme of Absolute Disorder

'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, 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.