Heritage Contact Zone

Heritage Contact Zone

July 12, 2019, 10:09 am

Castrum Peregrini has received funding by the European Commission SUPPORT TO EUROPEAN COOPERATION PROJECTS 2018 to realise a two year project Heritage Contact Zones with 7 partners across Europe: Castrum Peregrini, Amsterdam (NL), Goethe-Institut Lyon (DE), Human Platform Budapest (HU), Etz Hayyim Synagogue Hania (GR), Timisoara European Capital of Culture (RO), European University Institute Florence (IT), Culture Action Europe Brussels (BE).

Heritage Contact Zone (HCZ) works with contested heritage. The consortium of organizations from Germany, France, Greece, Hungary, Italy, The Netherlands, Belgium and Romania will present a sample of the neglected or contested heritages that the project will focus on.

Point of departure is the notion that European history is as much a history of shared cultural accomplishment as it is a history of violence, – violence of wars, colonisation, totalitarian and imperial regimes, religious violence, economic violence leading to social injustice, racial violence and generally the suppression of ‘others’. Only by recognition of all aspects of history also that of conflict and dissent, and by actively engaging with those citizens that still suffer exclusion because of this history being marginalised in mainstream heritage representation, Europe will be able to transgress its impasse and move forward towards more unity.

Cultural mediators and artists play a key role in this project to open up current heritage structures as ‚contact zones‘ towards more inclusive narratives.

In the two years of the project (September 2018 – August 2020) HCZ will realise 5 local exhibitions, co-curated with citizens, building bottom-up heritage representation and ‘new’ approaches and narratives for the organisations involved. It will then look at other examples of innovative and inclusive heritage representation, using heritage as a space for dialogue and constructive conflict and publish them in a comparative overview. A website will bring together all national exhibitions online, feature the comparative overview, offer a MOOC and critical reflections on the process.

For more information, visit the project website.