Erroneous: An Analysis of Numerous and Continuous Faults in Cultural Heritage - Series analysis “What Went Wrong”? 47 pages, pdf  Download Back

Series analysis “What Went Wrong”?
ERRONEOUS
An analysis of numerous and continuous faults in cultural heritage

Publisher: Emancipimi Civil Ma Ndryshe (EC MA Ndryshe), Kosovo

Date: 2013

Volume: 47 pages, pdf


Description

The international administration in Kosova brought a new interpretation for cultural heritage. Today, the cultural heritage monuments are being defined as never before on ethnic and religious grounds. This new paradigm of cultural heritage turns them into permanent source of tensions, while on political level; the cultural heritage continues to be an item of bargain between and Serbia. The Ahtisaari Plan is the document that has redefined the public discourse on cultural heritage, empowering its ethnic dimension. Nowadays, almost everyone in Kosova has wrongfully adopted this discourse, incorporating the Serb ethnicity into the monuments of orthodox heritage. Four cultural heritage properties of Republic of Kosova are listed in the UNESCO World Heritage List as medieval monuments of Kosova. Nevertheless, these and other monuments that belong to orthodox Christian belief in Kosova, have been constructed in different historical circumstances, and in themselves contain layers of earlier cultures and beliefs. This ethnicization of cultural heritage monuments is in contradiction with the simple fact that they have been erected as temples of the Christian (orthodox) cult, while in those times (mainly medieval) various Christian people lived in Kosova. In such circumstances, the cultural heritage has never succeeded to gain a proper treatment, through either professionals of public policy makers. As the politicization continues to suffocate every development potential of the cultural heritage, the gravest side effect is obstruction to establishment of an institutional system to manage cultural heritage as a universal human value and trait. As a result, the cultural heritage properties have become very vulnerable as Kosova has not managed to create a protection system that would be managed according to these values.