Votre ressource mondiale sur le patrimoine
EN
ES
FR
Notice (permalien)
Réf.
42837
Type
conference item
Titre
Heritage-making and democratic ideals in Albania: Spaç prison as a site of dialogue
Langues
English
Auteurs
Eaton, Jonathan / Bllaci, Mirian / Petri, Nedi / Hadžić, Lejla / Mamani, Elena
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
dialogue / reconciliation / democracy / cultural heritage / memory / Soviet heritage / rehabilitation / management / South East Europe / effects of deterioration / interpretation / military heritage / 20th century / conflicts / human rights / heritagization
Pays mentionnés
Albania
Monuments et sites
Spaç Prison, Albania
Résumé en anglais
Today, more than 25 years after the fall of Albania’s Communist regime, the country isengaged in a struggle over how to deal with its Communist past. For decades, Albania had not taken the
steps that many other transition countries have gone through: opening the secret police files; initiating atruth and reconciliation commission; undertaking a concerted effort to find and identify the bodies of
those who had forcibly disappeared; or reinterpreting the art and artefacts of Albanian Communismthrough a reflexive gaze. Within this context, sites of memory, such as Spaç Prison, have taken on a
particularly important role in shaping the discussion over memory and heritage-making for Albania’srecent past.
Originally a mine, Spaç Prison developed into a notorious political prison and forced labour camp,modelled after the Stalinist gulags. It is the only such site to be listed as a protected cultural heritage site
in Albania. The current presence of a mining company at Spaç Prison adds to the complexity—raisingtensions between the original purpose of the site (plus the region’s need for economic development) and
its history as a place of persecution. Underlying these tensions is the recognition that heritage-makinginvolves a constant struggle over whose stories and pasts are acknowledged and how.
Since 2014, the NGO Cultural Heritage without Borders–Albania (CHwB-Albania) has been engagingas wide a range of stakeholders as possible in a long-term process to develop Spaç Prison into a place of
dialogue. This dialogue and human rights-based approach recognizes that the conservation,interpretation and adaptive reuse of a site are all reliant on how the site becomes ‘heritage.’ Our paper
demonstrates how the heritage-making processes surrounding sites of persecution/atrocity/memory suchas Spaç Prison have important implications for the promotion of human rights and democratic ideals in
Albania today.
steps that many other transition countries have gone through: opening the secret police files; initiating atruth and reconciliation commission; undertaking a concerted effort to find and identify the bodies of
those who had forcibly disappeared; or reinterpreting the art and artefacts of Albanian Communismthrough a reflexive gaze. Within this context, sites of memory, such as Spaç Prison, have taken on a
particularly important role in shaping the discussion over memory and heritage-making for Albania’srecent past.
Originally a mine, Spaç Prison developed into a notorious political prison and forced labour camp,modelled after the Stalinist gulags. It is the only such site to be listed as a protected cultural heritage site
in Albania. The current presence of a mining company at Spaç Prison adds to the complexity—raisingtensions between the original purpose of the site (plus the region’s need for economic development) and
its history as a place of persecution. Underlying these tensions is the recognition that heritage-makinginvolves a constant struggle over whose stories and pasts are acknowledged and how.
Since 2014, the NGO Cultural Heritage without Borders–Albania (CHwB-Albania) has been engagingas wide a range of stakeholders as possible in a long-term process to develop Spaç Prison into a place of
dialogue. This dialogue and human rights-based approach recognizes that the conservation,interpretation and adaptive reuse of a site are all reliant on how the site becomes ‘heritage.’ Our paper
demonstrates how the heritage-making processes surrounding sites of persecution/atrocity/memory suchas Spaç Prison have important implications for the promotion of human rights and democratic ideals in
Albania today.
Ressource intégrale
yes
Document joint
4._ICOA_1487_Eaton_SM.pdfLicence
Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-Share Alike (BY-NC-SA)
Siège de l'ICOMOS - 11 rue du Séminaire de Conflans
94220 Charenton-le-Pont, France
Tel. +33 (0) 1 41 94 17 59
E-mail : secretariat@icomos.org
Pour toute demande presse & média, contacter : communication@icomos.org
