An Archaeology of Memory - Preserving Heritage as a Landscape of Learning in Bulgaria
- Submitting institution
-
University of Portsmouth
- Unit of assessment
- 32 - Art and Design: History, Practice and Theory
- Output identifier
- 16022142
- Type
- T - Other
- DOI
-
-
- Location
- Sofia Arsenal Museum of Contemporary Art, National Gallery, Sofia, Bulgaria
- Brief description of type
- A multi-component output consisting of an author curated exhibition curated and four research articles, supported by contextual information
- Open access status
- -
- Month
- August
- Year
- 2019
- URL
-
-
- Supplementary information
-
-
- Request cross-referral to
- -
- Output has been delayed by COVID-19
- No
- COVID-19 affected output statement
- -
- Forensic science
- No
- Criminology
- No
- Interdisciplinary
- No
- Number of additional authors
-
1
- Research group(s)
-
-
- Proposed double-weighted
- No
- Reserve for an output with double weighting
- No
- Additional information
- This multi-component output reflects the results from a long collaborative research project between two organisations in Bulgaria and one in the UK with four funding sources. The project focuses on rural heritage preservation, examining methods of recording, restoring and adapting vernacular architecture to revitalise depopulated rural communities in Bulgaria. The output consists of an exhibition curated by Milena Metalkova-Markova in the National Gallery of Bulgaria in Sofia (2019) and four research articles, supported by contextual information.
Acute depopulation and an ageing society in present Bulgaria have caused a devastating loss of cultural traditions, particularly in the countryside. Villages, churches and artefacts that reflected Bulgarian national identity have decayed, along with craft practices, traditions, knowledge, memories and economic activities that sustained them. The exhibition as a culmination of the project, comprised specially commissioned artists’ responses to these grave problems; exhibits included installations with photographs and drawings arising from a series of workshops that took place over seven years in some derelict villages on the naturally and culturally rich (but economically extremely impoverished) Devetaki Plateau in Bulgaria. Bringing together a network of academic researchers, heritage experts, local NGOs, municipalities, rural residents and architects, these workshops aimed to impart heritage preservation skills, especially among young people.
The articles disseminated a series of good practices, focused on residential, church, mill and barn buildings, where research and design preceded restoration and an adaptive reuse and a cross-disciplined international teamwork triggered heritage preservation and saved key buildings from decay.
Metalkova-Markova commissioned the artworks and directed the underpinning research for the exhibition and the articles, which drew upon methods for endogenous regional development, experimental preservation, ethnographic and anthropological drawing. The project won the Best Contribution to a Heritage Project by Young People at the Historic England Angel Awards 2018. The exhibition was widely disseminated through Bulgarian media.
- Author contribution statement
- -
- Non-English
- Yes
- English abstract
- The articles describe international cross-disciplinary team efforts to preserve rural vernacular heritage in an acutely depopulated region of Devetaki Plateau in Bulgaria. A local church, mill house and barn buildings were documented and evaluated and documentation for a heritage status was submitted. Architectural design for an adaptive reuse was drawn up to assist local communities and administrations in heritage buildings preservation. Restoration works followed as catalysts to initiate preservation of key community buildings by local administration and NGO’s. The articles demonstrate the positive role an academic-led research project could play in local heritage-based rural revitalization.