A Conversation: Negotiating Cultural Heritage. Making, Sustaining, Breaking, Sharing

Invitation to the event “Negotiating Cultural Heritage. Making, Sustaining, Breaking, Sharing. A Conversation” (Bode-Museum – Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, April 24, 2017)

The Conversation will be convened by the research program Art Histories and Aesthetic Practices, the Cluster of Excellence “Asia and Europe in a Global Context”, the Deutsches Archäologisches Institut, the Forum Transregionale Studien, the Max Weber Stiftung and the Stiftung Preußischer Kulturbesitz.

Abstract     Program     Poster

Photo: Georges Khalil

Architecture, artworks, crafted objects, texts, music, as well as sites, places, sounds and tastes are cultural products that contribute to a sense of community, belonging and identity. Objects of the past are deemed worthy to be stolen and reclaimed, to be exhibited and reconstructed, to be researched and collected, or even to be destroyed. Cultural goods are protected by international conventions; simultaneously, they are instruments of communitarian or even national politics which might be claimed by different communities or actors.

Drawing on the discussions of the conference “Making, Sustaining, Breaking: The Politics of Heritage and Culture” that took place in October 2016 in Heidelberg, we want to debate the following questions: What does cultural heritage mean in different national and regional contexts? Who can claim it as theirs, and who decides what constitutes cultural heritage, how it is preserved, displayed, or restored? Should museums and other cultural institutions act as preservationists, explorers, or mediators of this heritage?

The conversation is structured in three parts: During an introductory session, scholars and practitioners will introduce their main theses regarding particular aspects of cultural heritage. The second part is a WeberWorldCafé which provides space for a conversation between the speakers and the audience at up to ten hosted tables. In conclusion, a panel of four scholars will take up some of the main issues of the previous debates.

The event addresses students, researchers and practitioners from scientific and administrative institutions related to the issue of the talks. The discussants include Hannah Baader (Art Histories, Berlin; KHI Florenz), Monique Bellan (OI Beirut), Ralph Bodenstein (DAI, Berlin), Wulandani Dirgantoro (Art Histories Fellow, Berlin), Mohamed Elshahed (British Museum, London), Friederike Fless (DAI, Berlin), Inga Mai Groote (Universität Heidelberg), Banu Karaca (EUME Fellow, Berlin), Monica Juneja (Cluster Asia and Europe, Heidelberg), Solveig Lawrenz (DAI, Berlin), Venugopal Maddipati (Art Histories Fellow, Berlin), Andrea Meyer (TU Berlin), Barbara Mittler (Cluster Asia and Europe, Heidelberg), Alia Mossallam (EUME Fellow, Berlin), Indra Sengupta (GHI London), Eva-Maria Troelenberg (KHI Florenz), Stefan Weber (Museum für Islamische Kunst, Berlin), Gerhard Wolf (KHI Florenz), and Thorsten Wübbena (DFK Paris).

Due to limited capacities, we kindly ask for registration. Please send an email with your name and affiliation to presse@trafo-berlin.de before April 19, 2017.

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Citation: »A Conversation: Negotiating Cultural Heritage. Making, Sustaining, Breaking, Sharing«, in: TRAFO – Blog for Transregional Research, 17.03.2017, https://trafo.hypotheses.org/6202