Decolonizing Knowledge and the Power of Becoming Common: An Interview with Seloua Luste Boulbina

From 2010 to 2016, Luste Boulbina headed the Décolonisation des savoirs program at Collège international de philosophie, Paris, and in 2016 she established “Les artistes parlent aux philosophes,” an experimental laboratory in which I had the opportunity to participate. The laboratory brought together artists, philosophers, and art historians “engaged in the process of decolonizing rationality and the imaginary.” In close continuity with her singular line of thought, in her most recent book, Les miroirs vagabonds ou la décolonisation des savoirs (arts, littérature, philosophie), published in 2018 by Presses du réel, she highlights decolonization processes aimed at dismantling the colonial power matrix by exploring possibilities offered by the arts, literature, and philosophy. She generously agreed to an interview on certain issues examined in the book.