Heritage is a process: a place in the present and future given to the material and environmental cultures of the past. This lecture series focuses on heritage in the Middle East and Central Asia, with an emphasis on the processes of patrimonialization, whether perceived as positive (intellectual history, knowledge production, collection, exhibition, conservation) or negative (destruction). How are objects, built ensembles and spaces shown? What devices and discourses surround them? Whose heritage is collected, exhibited or, on the contrary, cancelled in museums and public spaces? Indeed, the destruction of works of art and monuments is also a powerful political gesture, which takes place in different contexts: protests, revolutions, destruction, wars. It also creates new realities and sometimes new artworks. What can we do with those voids and absences? How can we talk about collection history, museum conservation, but also voluntary destruction in contexts of extreme violence? Our aim is to reflect on all the frameworks that produce, display, or destroy heritage in the Middle East and Central Asia and over the long term.

For further information about the speakers, the topics and the entire program, see here.