Call for Papers: bfo-Journal, 2018 issue: Preserving a Shared Heritage. Challenges, Potential and Limits
First published in 2015, the bfo-journal is a yearly, multilingual, peer-reviewed open access journal hosted on bauforschungonline.ch.
On the occasion of the European Year of Cultural Heritage 2018 and its overriding topic “Shared Heritage”, the forth thematic issue of the bfo-Journal will be dedicated to the challenges, potential and limits in dealing with the preservation of a transcultural and transpolitical heritage. The growing importance of cultural and artistic zones of contact shows the necessity of respecting and preserving the different layers of those monuments that belong to more than one cultural sphere or political reality. As history has shown, external factors often interfere with the conservation of these important testimonies, as religious, political or military considerations may conduct to the oppression or even elimination of historic strata. Examples are numerous, as in 19th and 20th-centuries Spain, where the changing attitudes towards the Islamic heritage of al-Andalus guided the restoration strategies; during the Bosnian war (1992-1995), where a cultural genocide took place in former Yugoslavia; in contemporary Turkey, where an ongoing ‘Osmanisation’ process influences the conservation of its major monuments. The question of heritage preservation is also evident in the ambivalence towards ideologically charged landmarks in the context of political changes, even within apparently continuous cultures. Examples include the post-war attitudes towards fascist and Nazi architecture in Germany and Italy, as well as the calculating urban interventions that, under the communist regime, transformed the image, fabric and even topography of Romanian capital Bucharest.
The editorial board invites paper proposals which critically analyse the concept and meaning of shared heritage as from the 19th century to the present day. Why has it become so important in contemporary debates on arts, identity, and religious belonging? How did the approach towards transcultural heritage and its conservation change over the centuries and what were the reasons? Did political and military propaganda accelerate a de-valorising of certain cultural and historical layers?
Proposals in English, German, French and Italian, of up to 500 words may be sent to the editors by 15 March 2018 at journal@bauforschungonline.ch.
Upon their acceptance, the final papers should be no longer than 30’000 characters (including spaces and footnotes). They must be accompanied by maximum 10 illustrations, an abstract of 800 characters (including spaces), and a short biography of no more than 500 signs (including spaces).
For more information about bfo-Journal and further submission guidelines, please visit www.bauforschungonline.ch