Cécile Mendy reflects on the challenges and opportunities of integrating African conservation practices with, and alongside, internationally dominant methods.
Courtesy Le Soleil
Her work considers concrete museum contexts, such as humidity control, storage, and material care, and advocates for hybrid strategies that recognize local techniques as legitimate and scientifically rigorous.
In an interview with the French-language Le Soleil, she emphasizes that conservation should not be treated as a purely technical procedure imposed by global norms.
Instead, when rooted in local cultural logics and community practices – including traditional methods of protecting textiles or organic materials – conservation becomes a political and epistemic space where communities can assert their own priorities and knowledge systems.
