EXPOSICIÓN DE LA CULTURA MESTIZA EN PARÍS

Abstract

This article critically examines the exhibition Planète Métisse: to mix or not to mix?, presented at the Quai Branly Museum in Paris between 2008 and 2009, as a paradigmatic case for reflecting on the tensions between contemporary museology, cultural policies, and discourses on otherness. Drawing on an interdisciplinary approach that combines museum studies, cultural analysis, and decolonial perspectives, the author explores how European museums both confront and reproduce colonial legacies when representing phenomena such as mestizaje, cultural diversity, and identity. The study argues that although the exhibition sought to challenge racial stereotypes and highlight historical processes of cultural mixing, it did so without radically transforming museum display politics, preserving geographical divisions and classificatory logics inherited from colonial thought. Furthermore, the article shows how the concept of mestizaje was for decades a politically sensitive issue in France, linked to social fears and institutional resistance, before being re-signified as a positive value within contemporary discourses on diversity. The article concludes that Planète Métisse functioned primarily as a symbolic and pedagogical strategy aimed at European audiences rather than as a structural break with traditional exhibition models, revealing both the critical potential of museums and their limitations within broader political, cultural, and economic frameworks.