WHAT TO CONSERVE? Heritage, Memory, and Management of Meanings (original) (raw)

Cultural Heritage as the Heritage of Memory

Historia@Teoria, 2016

CULTURAL HERITAGE AS THE HERITAGE OF MEMORY Th e area of Central and Eastern Europe is characterised by a remarkable concentration of various sites of tangible and intangible cultural heritage. Th is abundance, which was created over many centuries, now still serves both these who consider themselves the successors of the former inhabitants of the area and the descendants of those who arrived there thanks to one of the waves of sett lement before the 20th century or due to forced migrations aft er the 20th-century wars. Over the last two centuries this part of Europe, whose elite culture was dominated by the rivalry of two German states (of the Catholic Habsburgs and the Protestant Hohenzollerns), was a virtual ethnic melting pot, in which many diff erent cultures co-existed and infl uenced one another. Th eir memory was preserved in the objects of material and non-material culture. Regardless of the diff erences in the approach, the topics of the papers collected in this volume are focused on the Central European cultural heritage understood as the heritage of memory, particularly the memory which has emerged and existed in relation with border areas. Each of the addressed issues transports us to the past in the search for material and non-material sources of this heritage. Moreover, each paper contains references to the present-day reception of the old heritage of memory, which now takes place through a diff erent community: one that is currently responsible for this heritage. According to the UN Convention for the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage (1972), various monuments and architectural works, secular and sacral, groups of buildings and sites "of outstanding universal value from the historical, aesthetic, ethnologica, or anthropological point of view". Whereas the UN Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage (2003) results from many years of searching, which focused on coining a defi nition of this elusive heritage. It is assumed that this very heritage comprises our collective memory. As much as the material culture sustains the identity of the nation, the spiritual, intangible heritage creates, shapes, and enriches it, stimulating its material expression. Th e intangible cultural heritage includes "the practices, representations, expressions, knowledge, skills-as well as the instruments, objects, artefacts and cultural spaces (...)-that communities [and] groups recognize as

A definition of cultural heritage: From the tangible to the intangible

The aim of this work is to analyse the evolution of the concept of cultural heritage in West European states. In the last decades of the 20th century, the term "heritage" was characterised by expansion and semantic transfer, resulting in a generalisation of the use of this word, frequently used in the place of another, such as, monument and cultural property. However, all these terms are not able to cover the same semantic field. Starting by the reflection on the semantic evolution of the notion of cultural heritage in France, we approach to the international definition of heritage given by the directives, charters and international resolutions in order to define a global outline of the meaning of heritage that is not just limited to a particular national dimension. From a purely normative approach, one went to a less restrictive approach, one based on the capacity of the object to arouse certain values that led the society in question to consider it as heritage and therefore, to a further step in which heritage is no longer defined on the basis of its material aspect. This development has also made it possible to recognise intangible cultural heritage, which was ignored for a long time, as heritage to be protected and safeguarded.

From the ‘monumental’ to the ‘living’ heritage: a shift in perspective

"After the adoption of the 1972 Convention the meaning and definition of Cultural Heritage went through adjustment and reconsideration which brought to a widening of the idea of cultural heritage. Cultural landscapes and industrial archaeology are just some examples. From the end of the nineties long-claimed requests for the recognition of the importance of ethnological heritage got stronger thanks to the increasing worries for cultural homogenisation as a consequence of the globalisation process. This process of renewal culminated in the adoption of the Convention on Intangible Cultural Heritage in October 2003 and the proposal of a deep renewal in the understanding and approach to heritage as a whole. This new perspective conceives heritage as a wider cultural whole and not only extends the World Heritage ‘brand’ to intangible cultural expressions but widens and redefines the previous meaning and definition of Cultural Heritage. Intangible features are more and more underlined and considered as decisive in the evaluation process of World Heritage sites focusing now on processes (social, biological or cultural) embodied in the sites. The distinction between tangible and intangible, a reflection of an administrative category, demonstrates therefore its artificial nature. Heritage is thus conceived not only as a consecrated masterpiece of the past to be venerated and preserved but as a symbolic and living space to be appropriated by local communities, the mirror of a collective and active memory. The idea of turning living cultures into heritage is however not free from contradictions. The paper shows, in an analytical perspective, the influence of the notion of intangible heritage, its theoretical contradictions and the new challenge facing cultural policies makers."

An Introduction to Heritage in Action

Academics did not create heritage, but they disciplined it, so to speak, in the late 20 th century. Heritage was already happening in the context of multiculturalism and globalization as " people all over the world … turned to ethnic and cultural identity as a means of mobilizing themselves for the defense of their social and political-economic interests " (Turner, 1993, p. 423). It was also happening via the mechanisms of UNESCO's World Heritage List, which were beginning to operate as early as 1978, and as mass tourism opened up new horizons for that industry. Indeed, cultural heritage was – and is – on the move: heritage is in action. One clear demonstration of this is the " overproduction " of heritage. Whether it is the expansion of the World Heritage List (1,031 inscriptions as of 2015 with no end in sight/sites, if we may be permitted the pun), the proliferation of museums, individual and community heritagizing actions, business sector appropriations of heritage discourse and imagery, the new European Heritage Label, or heritage-justified internal and international ethnic strife—it seems that everything and anything is being declared, contested and/or performed as heritage. Moreover, heritage now travels with a mobile population – temporary, permanent and along a scale between those extremes – and it (re)creates and reconfigures itself in its destinations. Heritage is produced and mobilized by individuals and communities in any number of actions, including remembering, forgetting, generating, adapting and performing. Heritage shapes and reshapes people's sense of place, sense of belonging and cultural identities locally and nationally. Clearly, then, heritage does " work " (Smith, 2006). And as work, cultural heritage is a tool that is deployed broadly in society today. It is at work in indigenous and vernacular communities, in urban development and regeneration schemes, in expressions of community, in acts of memorialization and counteracts of forgetting, in museums and other spaces of representation, in tourism, in the offices of those making public policy and, all too frequently, in conflicts over identity and the goals of those politics of identification. Thus, heritage is not simply an inert " something " to be looked at, passively experienced or a point of entertainment; rather, it is always bringing the past into the present through historical contingency and strategic appropriations, deployments, redeployments, and the creation of connections and reconnections. It implicates how memory is produced, framed, articulated and inscribed upon spaces in a locale, across regions, nationally and, ultimately, transnationally. It enables us to critically engage with contemporary social and political issues of grand import while also being a familiar prop drawn upon to make sense of more mundane processes of negotiating self, place, home and community.

Heritage Pasts and Heritage Presents: temporality, meaning and the scope of heritage studies

International Journal of Heritage Studies, 2001

With the apparent focus of work carried out by the heritage 'community' very much directed towards heritage practices in the present, the potential historical scope for the discipline as a whole, becomes ever-more temporally closed. This paper makes space for a longer historical analysis of the development of heritage as a process. The paper ranges over the evolution of a medieval sense of heritage and how it is related to transitions in the experience of space and place, and also explores some early modern developments in the heritage concept, relating them to societal changes associated with colonial (and post-colonial) experience. This deeper understanding of the historically contingent and embedded nature of heritage allows us to go beyond treating heritage simply as a set of problems to be solved, and enables us to engage with debates about the production of identity, power and authority throughout society.

Intangible' and 'tangible' heritage

2006

my lovely little roof-terrace nearby-kindly offered by 'Um Zaheer' who like 'my' mosque welcomed me with ever-growing gentleness the many times and altogether about eleven months I stayed-in Damascus Syria. Section Four: Towards an integrated approach 1 New typologies or beyond typologies 2 Topology in lieu of typology 2.1 Logos and topos 2.2 Topology-construction of a concept 2.3 Topology-opportunities and challenges Methodology of topological studies 3.1 Archaeology to social psychology-a round trip 3.2 Phenomenology and semiology 3.3 The paradox of documentation 3.4 Located or mapped? 3.5 Layered management for layered heritage Section Five: Topology researched-the Umayyad Mosque 1 The Umayyad Mosque-a conventional heritage introduction 2 A topological heritage analysis 2.1 Faith and duty-performance of prayers 2.2 Be blessed-visiting the prophets 2.3 Imam al-Hussayn-mourning and aspiration 2.4 Saint John's Cathedral-regretfully 2.5 Freedom-the largest playground 2.6 The Umayyad Mosque Museum 2.7 Tranquillity-keep and restore calm 2.8 Piazza-sitting, chatting, flirting 2.9 Smoking room-unveiled 2.10 Grab your food first-ramadan charity 2.11 Monumental-representation of power 2.12 The Centre-longing for home 2.13 Architectural prototype-curricula must 3 Heritage Umayyad Mosque-revisited 3.1 The case in UNESCO typologies 3.2 Heritage-emergence and obtrusion 3.3 Just another statement of significance? Conclusions: A plea for typological flexibility Epilogue: Preserving heritage as poetry References Appendix Prologue: thesis and methodology "What is created cannot itself come into being without those who preserve it" (Heidegger, 1971b, p. 66) states the German philosopher Martin Heidegger-whose poetic words I used to introduce into this work-in his essay on the origin of the work of art. His subsequent definition of the meaning of preservation has strongly inspired me in the process of writing. It shall therefore-though as yet unexplainedprecede my elaborations and will be taken up and into my considerations again later. Heidegger argues that: "Preserving the work means: standing-within the openness of being that happens in the work. This 'standing-within' of preservation, however, is a knowing." (Heidegger, 1971b, p. 67)

Memory of Ephemeral The New Problems of Intangible Cultural Heritage

2018

This essay deals with the topic of the juridical and conservative problem of an ICH. In the last years, a significant interest has grown for this and for cultural diversity as a form of enrichment. This led to the birth of two UNESCO Conventions (2003 and 2005). The aim is analysing how these Conventions have been incorporated in Italy and the problems that are arising with this incorporation. The example that will be addressed is the one of dance especially folk and the difficulty of its classification (ICH, cultural expression) and its subsequent safeguarding (is it better a museum or an archive to preserve the ‘memory of the ephemeral’?). Summary

The making and unmaking of Heritage

2015

Heritage is defined by history which is by nature multi layered. The passage of time and the perspectives it affords, enables and even necessitates constant reexamination and reinterpretation of history. What effect do changes in historical perspective then have upon the definition of heritage which relies on an understanding of its history? The present paper attempts to engage with the notion of heritage, criteria of its definition, and the mutable nature of such designations with specific reference to architectural constructions and historical cities that enjoy or have enjoyed in the past the status of a ‘World Heritage Site’. Examples such as the Louvre museum in Paris or the King’s Cross station in London make an interesting study as they not only allow insight into the past but reflect the changes and adaptation over a period of time. Multiple alterations, some very recently, have modified them extensively since the time they were accorded the ‘World Heritage Site’ status. The ...

At the interface of history and memory: Safeguarding intangible heritage in museums

This paper was presented at the international conference 'Intangible! Living Heritage in Museums' at the Museum of European Cultures in Berlin, 6-7 June 2024. It draws on the distinction between history and memory articulated by Pierre Nora and the stipulations of the UNESCO 2003 Convention for the Safeguarding of Intangible Heritage to examine historical and memorial museum approaches in safeguarding intangible heritage.