Gastvortrag: Old Collections, New Language: How French Museums Deal with Racial Markers and Colonial Representations

How can objects which convey racist and colonial beliefs, stereotypes and discourse, be exhibited today in art and history museums? For some time now, Western museums have been confronted with this question and have initiated a process of developing new narratives (Chivallon 2006, Hourcade 2013) by imagining forms of reparation through discourse, by reorganising museum spaces, or reflecting on the choice of objects to exhibit or not. These attempts to adopt a critical and reflexive stance question both the limits of what can be said and showed, as well as the capacity of museums to change social norms and representations. 

In the first part of the presentation, I will analyse information panels exposed in several French museums, both within permanent collections and temporary exhibitions. The focus will be on metadiscourse (elaboration of discursive and semiotic rules), nomination (giving new titles to artworks, replacing "racial markers" by other words) and reflexivity (explication of the museum’s choices and/or the "backstage" (Crenn 2016) of the exhibited objects), as the main ways of implementing new discursive norms. The analysis highlights the complexity of the task, which often produces discursive heterogeneity within museum spaces. Finally, an analysis of the accompanying documentation (catalogues, press kits) helps us to understand how museums represent their role in regulating social discourse.

Manifestation du Pôle France avec le Nachwuchskolleg Europa du Cluster de recherche européenne (CEUS) de l'Université de la Sarre.