In Favour of an Emotional Museological System

Abstract

In this interview with French-Algerian artist Kader Attia, we discuss how his notion of ‘repairing’ the wounds of colonialism can be applied both practically and theoretically to museums. Kader Attia talks to Sylvia Keck about museums as both repressive and liberating systems and how to articulate a political statement within the art world. We also tackle the question of how to display African objects repaired with a Western element that were forgotten in storage, and how to have an emotional relation to artefacts in the museum, a fundamentally sacralized institution.