The adversity of heritage designation is one of the major topics discussed in the critical heritage discourse. Enlistment can become a competition, establishing a hierarchy for heritage based on...Show moreThe adversity of heritage designation is one of the major topics discussed in the critical heritage discourse. Enlistment can become a competition, establishing a hierarchy for heritage based on evaluation. The system is structured on exclusion, giving indeterminate criteria of values to phenomena to decontextualize its immediate surroundings and recontextualize them in reference to previous listings with the purpose of profit and attention to the notion of safeguarding. Especially in enlisting performative practices as intangible heritage properties, a problem can be seen in recording a fixed, standardized form of the performance in a certain moment in time. Following researchers responsible for providing descriptions in order to enlist properties, emphasis is placed rather on artistic aspects than on tracing original functionality and development. Well-intentioned but restrictive preservation efforts can result in shaping vibrant performative practices into “stale, taxidermized re-enactments” or highly staged performances. The repetition of a standard form is established in the process of nomination, fixed in designation, and consolidated and conveyed in transmission. Salpuri-chum, a spiritually functional dance, has been encapsulated in temporal stylistic descriptions and adapted to be performed by highly trained professional dancers for foremost representative and promotional purposes as a distinct display of Korean traditional culture.Show less
This thesis analyzes the Chinese cultural exploration TV program 'National Treasure', which was popular for its introduction and promotion of museum collections (known as 'cultural relics' 文物 in...Show moreThis thesis analyzes the Chinese cultural exploration TV program 'National Treasure', which was popular for its introduction and promotion of museum collections (known as 'cultural relics' 文物 in China) as 'national treasures'. This thesis further investigates this program as a new means of Chinese identity construction by the Chinese government based on the 'Chinese Dream'（中国梦）discourse.Show less
Candi Borobudur is one of the most prominent ‘heritage sites’ in Indonesia. Since its ‘rediscovery’ by Dutch colonists, researchers have been using Western approaches to gain insight in the...Show moreCandi Borobudur is one of the most prominent ‘heritage sites’ in Indonesia. Since its ‘rediscovery’ by Dutch colonists, researchers have been using Western approaches to gain insight in the function, surroundings and overall significance of the candi. In doing so, many scholars have overlooked the Buddhist theological aspects that demonstrate the existence of a cultural landscape in the form of a representative mandala. Within this cultural landscape, local villagers had long maintained a self-sufficient way of life that was both environmentally friendly and economically diverse. Nevertheless, the Dutch East Indies government prescribed that Candi Borobudur be a ‘monument’ and appropriated it as part of Dutch imperial legacy. This narrow understanding is the basis of the ‘heritagisation’ of Candi Borobudur, manifested in its spatial reduction and the omission of its intangible features. After the Republic of Indonesia’s independence, the New Order regime continued to ‘heritagise’ the candi by conducting an exhaustive restoration in the 1970s. An example of ‘crypto-colonialism’ and ‘authorised heritage’, the restoration culminated in Candi Borobudur’s inscription in UNESCO’s World Heritage Site List in 1991. According to the official Indonesian narrative, the candi is a ‘monument’ that epitomises Indonesian cultural and historical wealth. Inspired by the republic’s Pancasila ideology, such a narrative is to instill a sense of ownership of the candi among Indonesians. Ironically, the process of ‘heritagisation’ of Candi Borobudur has entailed the co-optation of obsolete legislation and forced evictions of local communities. Given that the candi is a Buddhist site in a Muslim-majority country, its religious meaning has also become increasingly foreign. Overall, the ‘heritagisation’ of Candi Borobudur demonstrates both a combination of and a contention between ‘colonial’ and nationalist practices.Show less
Seoul has continuously been reshaped by nation-building strategies that project the image of the nation through urban space. From the 1970s onwards, this image has drastically changed by rapid...Show moreSeoul has continuously been reshaped by nation-building strategies that project the image of the nation through urban space. From the 1970s onwards, this image has drastically changed by rapid industrialization and the creation of a ‘national heritage’ canon under the Park Chung Hee government. Subsequent governments have invested in the 'politics of memory' to strengthen their regimes: complete urban compounds were demolished and replaced by monuments, museums, public plazas, and impressive urban projects that have recently turned Seoul into a 'soft’, playful and global city. However, current Seoul Mayor Park Won Soon has shifted his focus on urban revitalization instead of demolition. His ‘Seoul Future Heritage Program’, in which ‘Industrial Heritage’ plays a crucial role, reflects the approach of ‘heritagization’, the creation of heritage, to revitalize decaying structures in the city. Seoullo 7017, a deteriorating traffic overpass turned into a green walkway, and Again Sewoon, an old arcade ‘revived’ by inviting startups and creative events, were elevated as ‘Industrial Heritage’ and imagined alongside the nation’s ‘traditional’ heritage in a naturalized narrative portraying the nation’s culture and progress. Both projects were designed to attract daily citizen activity and engagement with their heritage value through information signs, public campaigns, and pedestrian accessibility. Altogether, Mayor Park’s policy shows a crucial shift in attention towards experiential heritage, in which industrial architecture is firmly placed within the national heritage narrative.Show less
The main theme of the research consists in finding how multicultural identities of diasporic return migrants are actualized and expressed. Acknowledging the discursive nature of heritage, we can...Show moreThe main theme of the research consists in finding how multicultural identities of diasporic return migrants are actualized and expressed. Acknowledging the discursive nature of heritage, we can understand story-telling as a means to define one’s cultural identity. However, as language is tied to culture, we might consider a more universal form of expression that transcends cultural categorization to cease the multi-faceted and fluid identity of returnees. The following research attempts to establish art and visual representation as individual conscious or unconscious means of expression of cultural identity. This was illustrated on the hand of a case-study focused on a specific group of diasporic return migrants in Vietnam: the French Vietnamese returnee artists of Saigon . It was based on the analysis of the works of four French Vietnamese artists, locally defined as French “Viet Kieu” (“Overseas Vietnamese” in English): Sandrine Llouquet, Bao Vuong, Mai-Loan Tu and Florian Nguyen. In the first instance, the research process drew a contextual framework of Vietnamese society in parallel with the development of the Saigonese contemporary art scene to understand the experiences of the artists reported in their biographies in order to underline their relationship to Vietnamese heritage. In the second instance, ethnographic methods combined with their interpretive biographies informed an iconological study of their artistic production that identified potential expressions of their Vietnamese heritage in their work. Finally, the two approaches were combined in a synthetic exercise that helped drawing conclusions on the transmission of Vietnamese heritage and the general definition of the artists’ cultural heritage and identity.Show less
This MA thesis aims to analyze the relationship between Japan and Korea from the point of view of Cultural Heritage Studies and Art History. The case study I took into consideration is the Korean...Show moreThis MA thesis aims to analyze the relationship between Japan and Korea from the point of view of Cultural Heritage Studies and Art History. The case study I took into consideration is the Korean Goryeo Buddhist Paintings, a painting tradition which is almost disappeared by its homeland, but which conserves the majority of its last surviving examples in Japanese temples and museums. This case study has no precedents and it is an interesting tool to understand the political dynamics behind the discussion of cultural properties return in East Asia. This thesis will consider the study of the subject throughout various fields: it starts from the historical debate on the paintings, then it will move to the colonial period policies for the protection of cultural properties in Japan and Korea, to the modern legislation on the return of cultural properties, the creation of a Japanese scholarship around the Korean painting tradition and lastly, it will end with an art historical analysis of the items.Show less
Since the dawn of humankind pottery has played a role in civilization. Pottery can be used to pinpoint geographical expansion or migration of a people. It can be a way to determine events...Show moreSince the dawn of humankind pottery has played a role in civilization. Pottery can be used to pinpoint geographical expansion or migration of a people. It can be a way to determine events surrounding civilisations. This historical consciousness of pottery is also what illustrates some iconic events in the history between Japan and Korea, but it may also link the contemporary relationship of each respective ceramic tradition since there are many people interested in the Korean and Japanese pottery of the past. The content of this thesis argues that they are never completely separate from each other. Through the nineteenth and twentieth century Japan and Korea each developed their cultural heritage policies and respective nationalist discourses. In Japan anxiety of westernization crept in. In Korea anxiety of westernization came simultaneously with a struggle for their cultural identity because of the Japanese colonial rule. Both countries took countermeasures in the form of folklore programs and revitalization and other searches for nostalgia and identity. Due to such dynamics, the effect of state policies and national narratives affected how craftsmanship was perceived. It was often labelled as symbol of the state, and something to find your ethnic and national identity in. These post-war policies created a sense of cultural essentialism that was hard to alter, even in the social context. Institutionalisation, as part of ‘heritagisation’ created a web of museums, government advertising, government organized or endorsed festivals and the ‘National Living Treasure’ program. Especially in Korea was this a scholarly source of critique. Through analysis from which context each heritage discourse came from and how it is maintained today it seems as if it obstructs the possibility of creating an image of cultural connectedness. Nevertheless a certain different dynamic is rising. The contemporary communities of potters and ceramic artists may pose as an alternative level to portray pottery heritage juxtaposed to the grand narrative of the heritage industry and government. Will or can redirecting our view to the level of the people as artists involved with Korea’s and Japan’s ceramics heritage change an obstinate cultural essentialism and disconnectedness?Show less
In this thesis, I have traced the evolution of Borobudur from a sanctuary to a sacred landscape to show the role played by heritage in the production of, and resistance to, social inequalities....Show moreIn this thesis, I have traced the evolution of Borobudur from a sanctuary to a sacred landscape to show the role played by heritage in the production of, and resistance to, social inequalities. Moreover, I have looked at how all of this affects the space and connects heritage to broader agendas of sustainability. I have done so by focusing on a set of social actors such as Indonesian bureaucrats and NGOs workers related to the difference perceptions of the site as: a monumen nasional (national monument) to a taman nasional purkabala (archaeological park), to a taman wisata (tourism park), to a World heritage site, but also, from a site of kearifan lokal (local wisdom) to a saujana (cultural landscape), and particularly to a mandala saujana (Borobudur cultural landscape).On this background, I will attempt to answer the following questions: how notions of heritage are mobilized by social actors at Borobudur in such a way to produce, as well as to counter, social inequalities such as the social and cultural evacuation of the space? What limits and challenges do these social actors face? What lessons can be learned in terms of sustainability? My argument is that processes of heritage involve continuous re-negotiation of perceptions through encounters, alliances, and creative appropriations. If we want to understand to what extent the power of culture is taking over the culture of power in the contemporary historical moment in any given context, we should look at the dynamics of such articulations.Show less
