Votre ressource mondiale sur le patrimoine
EN
ES
FR
Réf.
42811
Type
conference item
Titre
Heritage as the democracy of the dead, the living and the unborn: The role of dialogue with monuments in integrating commonalities
Langues
English
Auteurs
Ganiatsas, Vassilis
Lieu de publication
Charenton-le-Pont
Pays de publication
France
Maison d'édition
ICOMOS
Date
2018
Titre de conférence
ICOMOS 19th General Assembly and Scientific Symposium "Heritage and Democracy"
Lieu de conférence
New Delhi, India
Date de conférence
13-14th December 2017
Mots-clés
cultural heritage / development / commonalities / dialogue / democracy / conservation / stakeholders / compatibility / sustainability / urban areas / town and country planning / economic aspects / social aspects / prevention of deterioration / sustainable development / customs and traditions
Résumé en anglais
Heritage predates conditions and finally forms our cultural life, while we constantly reframe itin changing urban contexts. In this diachronic, dynamic cultural process of conservation and
development, a diversity of stakeholders invests different sets of values, establish different culturalsignificances and envisage different futures for their heritage.
Yet, heritage is common to all in both; its spatial dimension, as it occupies the common public space ofall stakeholders, and in its temporal/ historical dimension, as it equally pervades their shared history and
memory. We could add to G.K. Chesterton’s phrase“Tradition is the democracy of the dead. It means giving a vote to our ancestors”, that heritage, as
tradition, is also the democracy of giving a vote to our unborn descendants.What is urgently needed in order to accommodate this growing diversity of involved stakeholders of
heritage at any one time, but also at different times involving past, present and future generations ofstakeholders is an active dialogue centred upon the monuments themselves and their emitted cultural
significance.This shift of the point of view from the dialogue between stakeholders to a dialogue of all of them with
the monuments, could establish the latter as valid interlocutors in setting, according to theiridiosyncrasies, the criteria of their compatibility, capacity and potential vis a vis urban development. Such
a dialogue with monuments could then safeguard sustainability of both, heritage and development alike.Monuments as active agents can make a claim for a democratic dialogical process
that alone couldestablish their common sense on a common ground and conflate conservation and sustainable
development in one place. Dialogue, the prime characteristic of democracy, should be the prime means towards unfolding this
potential of monuments for spatial and temporal mediation in establishing a common ground of sharedcultural significance in multi-cultural urban environments.
development, a diversity of stakeholders invests different sets of values, establish different culturalsignificances and envisage different futures for their heritage.
Yet, heritage is common to all in both; its spatial dimension, as it occupies the common public space ofall stakeholders, and in its temporal/ historical dimension, as it equally pervades their shared history and
memory. We could add to G.K. Chesterton’s phrase“Tradition is the democracy of the dead. It means giving a vote to our ancestors”, that heritage, as
tradition, is also the democracy of giving a vote to our unborn descendants.What is urgently needed in order to accommodate this growing diversity of involved stakeholders of
heritage at any one time, but also at different times involving past, present and future generations ofstakeholders is an active dialogue centred upon the monuments themselves and their emitted cultural
significance.This shift of the point of view from the dialogue between stakeholders to a dialogue of all of them with
the monuments, could establish the latter as valid interlocutors in setting, according to theiridiosyncrasies, the criteria of their compatibility, capacity and potential vis a vis urban development. Such
a dialogue with monuments could then safeguard sustainability of both, heritage and development alike.Monuments as active agents can make a claim for a democratic dialogical process
that alone couldestablish their common sense on a common ground and conflate conservation and sustainable
development in one place. Dialogue, the prime characteristic of democracy, should be the prime means towards unfolding this
potential of monuments for spatial and temporal mediation in establishing a common ground of sharedcultural significance in multi-cultural urban environments.
Document joint
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