Interpretations of the Exhibition with Françoise Vergès

In this session, Françoise Vergès will offer their own reading of The Assault of Illusion, connecting the works, mechanisms and strategies of representation that the exhibition proposes with the central debates in their field of research and practice.

In January 1964, the psychoanalyst Octave Mannoni published an article in Les Temps Modernes in which he dissected the so-commonly-used expression “I know, but still…,” placing it at the center of the issues specific to the “denial of reality”). In the current context of genocide in Palestine, of imperialist wars, climate disaster and intensified global counter-revolution, Françoise Vergès will argue why a re-appropriation of dynamics of illusion-building does not seem possible or, why knowing that the museum is a forger of illusion does not diminish its power.

The readings linked to the lecture are also inscribed in Situations (making) #10, Santa Mònica's collective learning and research programme, aimed at critically analysing how cultural devices configure illusions that shape our desire and our idea of reality.

This proposal forms part of the exhibition's public programme, which under the title Interpretations of the exhibition brings together seven contemporary voices to deepen and expand the questions raised by the project.

With the participation of Françoise Vergès


Françoise Vergès (Paris, 1952) is a French historian and political scientist specialising in postcolonial studies and decolonial feminism. Her research deals with the history of slavery, decolonisation and colonial memory. She has published numerous books and articles and has been president of the Committee for the Memory and History of Slavery in France.