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Walter Mignolo is a William Hanes Wannamaker Professor of Romance Studies and Professor of Literature and Cultural Anthropology at the Duke University, Durham, United States. His lectures main theme was the museum and its role in the colonisation of knowledge and the being, as well as the debate over ways of de-colonising them. His talk was divided into three parts: the first part was planned to be a general introduction to the theme but it moved towards themes specific to the conference; in the second part the professor showed images from the installation Mining the Museum, by Fred Wilson exhibited at the Maryland Historical Society; finally, in the third part Mignolo presented his argument, which can be found on the last eight pages of the paper specially prepared for this conference.
In the process of describing the concept of culture, the lecturer stated that culture emerged as a substitute for religion. Modernity makes use of the rhetoric of salvation through progress, development, technology and democracy, which can be witnessed in the current American intervention in Iraq. Such rhetoric stops us from realising that there are movements which are contrary to the global process of modernisation and Europeanasation. Mignolo made references to previous debates, particularly to the issue of considering marginal or peripheral artistic proposals, which was initially brought to the discussion by Ursula Biermann and later discussed by Zdenka Badovinac. In his opinion, Zdenkas approach indicated a shift in paradigm which represents an epistemology of coexistence. He explained that the new paradigm represents the shift from a post-colonial theory the result of a strictly euro-centric epistemology to a new concept of de-colonisation, which appeared in the 80s and 90s as an attempt to rethink the theory of dependency.
Before talking about the issue of museum, Walter Mignolo asked the participants to memorise three expressions which were vital to his argument: coloniality of power, knowledge and being. Throughout history, museums have followed two different paths: art museums aiming to establish an European history and museums of ethnography and national history dealing with other cultures. However, both have adopted the same logic of knowledge accumulation directly linked to capitalism and contributed to the European expansion without taking into account any movements of resistance or debates. As an example, he mentioned The Field Museum, dedicated to ethnography and natural history; and The Art Institute of Chicago, dedicated to art and civilisation.
The lecturer showed an installation by Fred Wilson - an Afro-American artist with Caribbean roots -, who represented the USA at the Venice Biennale in 2003. Wilsons work does not consist of his own work. He re-grouped collections from different museums using institutionalised exhibition techniques, which allow us to adopt a new point of view with regards to the objects presented. Mignolo showed images from the following works:
1. Cabinetmaking (1992), a group of chairs arranged for a music concert, where instead of watching the concert, the audience watches a slave being punished; 2. Metalwork (1793-1880) chains surrounded by silverware; 3. Modes of Transport (1770-1910), a Ku Klux Klan outfit inside an innocent baby pram; 4. Welcome to the Mining Museum; the reception hall, pedestals where names of slaves and historic figures torsos such as Napoleons - are displayed at the same level; 5. Punt gun, a riffle aimed at pictures of ducks and African slaves. There was also a projection of an old black and white picture named Picnic at Wye House. The meaning of the projection was to be revealed at the end of the lecture.
Walter Mignolo started to explain his main argument by commenting on an article by Holland Cotter Pumping Air into the Museum; So Its as Big as the World Outside, published by the New York Times in April 2004 about Fred Wilsons exhibition "Objects and Installations, 1979-2000". This article is important because its author used Post-Modernism a theory linked to Post-Colonialism as an argument to defend Wilsons work. According to Mignolo, Fred Wilsons installations do not bare any relation to Post-Modernism, Post-Colonialism or Post-Structuralism, which are theories restricted to European history and experiences. The installations actually contribute to the de-colonial thought , a real epistemological displacement, which was adopted in Latin America by the Social Sciences, Philosophy and the Liberation Theology. De-coloniality means the de-colonisation of being and knowledge, of gender and sexuality, of authority and economy.
According to this new perspective, it is important to de-colonise the individual, to learn to be and to learn to unlearn modernity. While commenting on the debates which took place in the morning, the professor stated that if we consider modernity as an arrival point, we are doomed to fail. The process of de-colonisation should involve the disconnection from categories drawn from an hegemonic thought. To disconnect means to open and break up the bonds with euro-centrism, stained by the idea of hegemony of white over black. In this context, museums have an important role to play in the process of de-colonising being and knowledge. However, museums should be put into question since they exclude every denial of modernity. We must undo the rhetoric of denial.
The lecturer mentioned the recent riots in France, previously mentioned in the conference by Brian Holmes. Mignolo talked about a colonial wound, the result of the humiliation imposed on colonised people. One of current crisis triggers is the awareness of humiliation and racialisation. The professor also brought to discussion the concept of bare life, commented previously in the conference. He related it to the humiliation suffered by Jewish people during the Holocaust, which according to him was the application of colonial techniques upon white people. Slavery turns people into commodities, therefore, the fundamental issue is the fact that colonisation views human life as a disposable good. This perspective has also been adapted by neo-liberalism.
Finally, Walter Mignolo said that he attempted to demonstrate some of the ideas of his concept of de-colonisation. He also revealed the mystery of the picture shown beforehand Picnic at Wye House. Surrounded by white people theres a black man who we cannot see because of the light focus. We are conditioned to deny the other; however, the de-colonisation of knowing would put the other into focus.
(by Vinícius Spricigo)
Translation: hí-fen translation solutions
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