Preserving and documenting the Cultural Heritage (original) (raw)
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International Conference Built Heritage 2013- Monitoring Conservation Management. Edited by M. Boriani, G. Gabaglio, G. Gullotta, Politecnico di Milano, Centro per la Conservazione e Valorizzazione dei Beni Culturali, 2013
1. Heritage 3.0: from "build" to "cultural" one This paper summarizes the goals of a broader research project focused on management and conservation of cemeteries. These are special examples of cultural heritage, because of their double feature of "monument" and "memorial". Speaking about the goals doesn't means merely to tell the results in their bare evidence. It means match the outcomes of an applied research to general problems, in order to verify the methodology in its scientifi c approach, and the possibility to solve other problems related to the conservation of built heritage. Indeed the 'case study' emphasis how the same survey methodology of architecture may apply to a wider range of assets and it offers helpful tools in the preservation of the whole cultural heritage. The recent past has showed an increasing attention to the building heritage. Meanwhile we do remark the widening of what is worth to conserve. In the fi rst half of XXth century the focus was on monumental Architecture and Fine Arts that in Italy was a lot but not all. In the second half of the century, the architect's attention moved from the "building" to the "environment". On the one hand it was welcoming the concept that a monument is deeply related to its (urban) landscape, on the other hand the signifi cance of urban fabric. Following Muratori's teaching, the attention focused on urban architecture, even if none were monumental. "Downtown" recalls in whole Europe a background of historical building, by the old ages, but still in use and in value. People have something more than effi ciency or comfort of the contemporary spaces. Therefore urban and environment preservation are good business because of their great infl uence on tourism. Arts and crafts have increased their meaningfulness as witness elements of the past. Many cities and landscapes have this meaning, so the planning imposes to be careful to these signs. Eventually, the preservation doesn't concern only the monuments and original works of art, but also in the humanities expressed by common use objects. The last step was the acknowledgement of the social signifi cance of wider cultural heritage, which concerned immaterial values as well. Further preservation means the maintenance of both material and immaterial levels. This awareness stresses the signifi cance of any effort in order to keep a relation between the artefacts and their social meaning. Conservation depends not only on the masterpieces' repair; so nowadays we are aware that the building restoration is only one of the conservation tools. This means that is needed a management approach to the whole cultural heritage. Consequently it requires a deep knowledge of assets and relations. The architectural survey was the fi rst instruments of preservation. The resto-
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Advances in Religious and Cultural Studies, 2019
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Artistic Heritage: From Knowledge to Valorisation
2007
Commission "Archaeology & Conservation 2/3" ABSTRACT: After stressing the importance of knowledge and listing the different phases regarding the preservation and valorisation of artistic heritage, the authors have analysed the inherent problems of preserving the integrity and identity of a particular object of cultural heritage, also from a legislative point of view (from national law n. 1089 of 1939 to the recent New Code for Cultural Heritage and Environment of 2004).
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This paper, an essay, constitutes an approach on theoretical principles of intervention in heritage buildings. It will be founded on the certainty that, in general terms, in order to preserve it is necessary to transform, without depriving the artifact from its nature. It is centered on the relationships both materials and materiality keep with preservation, thus it is about the concepts and the limits of originality and authenticity in order to preserve. How memory and identity are formed is a theme of great relevance nowadays, considering the world of global relations-with extremely fast connections and the presence of new media-which alter sensitivities and human behaviors producing meaningful mutations in phenomena of cultural nature. Population growth and the continuity in the urbanization process, present among us since the industrial revolution, is heightened nowadays especially in developing world countries, promote urban concentrations and conurbations – when great urban areas are connected physically – establishing an edified territorial continuity. In constructed urban space, the nuclear central areas ABSTRACT: This paper will be founded on the certainty that, in general terms, in order to preserve it is necessary to transform, without depriving the artifact from its nature. It is centered on the relations both materials and materiality keep with preservation. It addresses the tangible support of both cultural nature and heritage value artifacts, which possess the dimension of time – relative in its own nature/essence – as one of the main references and criteria for safeguard, preservation, conservation, as well as for restoration interventions and reintegration of these arti-facts into daily life. The paper lays foundation in the increasing presence, relevance and meaning of the heritage issue, as well as the extensions of its conceptual and geographical basis before the great transformations of the human environment, especially the constructed one. It highlights the ways relationships and feelings are established with tangible cultural artifacts and their dimensions as monuments and documents. It identifies the prevalence and relativization of the criteria for authenticity, in comparison to identity, and their expressions in the current recommended fun-daments in the area. The paper defends an active and imaginative conservationist attitude, opposed to a nostalgic approach, as a beacon for actions of systematic preservation of the heritage artifacts, which form the memory and identity of communities. It concludes that some things should change over time, whereas others should remain the same in their substance and essence, in spite of having been transformed.
2015
Preface Nowadays, responsibility for the heritage, broadly understood as human and environmental coexistence, is the most important challenge of humanity. The Convention Concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage proclaimed in 1972 by United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) reinforced and popularized the Western thought that divided the nature and the culture, which had its beginning in the thought of Enlightenment (MacCormack and Strathern 1980). The nature vs. culture dichotomy, understood as contrasting those two qualities, had huge consequences often depreciating the value of the one for the another. In Articles 1 and 2 of the Convention (UNESCO 2005), the criteria allowing for qualifying properties as examples of cultural or natural heritage were defined. Sandra Pannell lists definitions of cultural heritage we can find in Convention as ‘‘monuments’, ‘groups of buildings’ and ‘sites’, the last ones being the ‘works of man or the combined works of nature and of man’’ (Panell 2006). Definitions of natural heritage are put as ‘‘physical and biological formations’, ‘habitats of threatened species’ and ‘natural sites or natural areas’, which are of ‘outstanding universal value’ from the point of view of science, conservation and/or aesthetics’’(Panell 2006). We can also find ‘mixed heritage’ understood as combination of cultural and natural ones. Nowadays UNESCO proclaims a new way of understanding heritage, a new vision which ‘strives to recognize and protect sites that are outstanding demonstrations of human coexistence with the land as well as human interactions, cultural coexistence, spirituality and creative expression’ (UNESCO 2008). That approach wins more and more supporters not only in the scientific world but also in people all over the world. The discussed process is taking place on numerous planes. Starting from the discussion of specialists on universal values and defining the basic notions, through changes in legal regulations e.g.: connected to implementation of the European Landscape Convention, which is to be accepted by every signing country, to a purely social plane connected with popularization of a new way of understanding, viewing and protecting the Heritage. The term ‘Cultural landscape’ is the actual sample of such a new thinking, and therefore we have decided to focus mostly on the elements of cultural landscape. The subject, approached from various perspectives, from a theoretical (defining and situating cultural landscape in the social space) to a practical one (revitalizations of historically and culturally valuable objects, the value of which forms the identity of the region, winning the sources of financing), from the municipal (examples of Cittaslow towns, urban parks, or ‘The Holy Cemetery’ in Romania) to the rural one (‘Village Renewal’), from a French (an excellent sample of the Parc Naturel Régional de la Brenne ) to a Polish one (examples of Warmia and Mazury, as well as Podlasie) constitutes the first part and the core of this publication. The further part deals with the subjects connected with difficult/dissonant heritage basing on the example of Warmia and Mazury, where, due to political and historical conditions, the regional cultural landscape was subjected to ideologization in favour of Polish raison d’état. The authors have presented how important and more and more common it is in that ‘difficult’ environment to discover and build identity of a human being based on the heritage of the region. The final part of the following monograph discusses particular actions taken by various organizational units (the University, societies, funds) to put theory into practice. We let those who make that theory work in practice speak. Launching the cultural and natural studies as well as the Centre for Cultural and Natural Heritage at the University of Warmia and Mazury in Olsztyn, together with work of specific people in associations and organizations show us how important it is to be aware of and to take care for the cultural heritage and what difficult this work it is. The collected examples, however, prove that it may be done successfully. We realize that we have not discussed in this publication numerous important issues and areas of heritage or we have not devoted as much time to them as they deserve. Our intention is to inspire with the expertise and experience of this book as much people, organizations, and self-governments to notice the cultural and natural heritage and to take measures for its protection. The international exchange of experiences presented in this publication would not be possible without personal involvement by the authorities of the University of Warmia and Mazury in Olsztyn, the Association France-Pologne de l'Indre and the management of the Parc Naturel Régional de la Brenne. We believe that that every initiative to be born under the influence of this publication, which aims at showing how it is possible to take care together for heritage understood according to the UNESCO World Heritage Centre as ‘our cultural and natural heritage are both irreplaceable sources of life and inspiration. They are our touchstones, our points of reference, our identity’ (UNESCO 2008), is to serve well for the local societies building, at the same time, a relation with the place of living. M. Śliwa, K. Glińska-Lewczuk