Ivo Strahilov (MON Fellow, Oct ‘23 – Jul ‘24) will give his second talk on:

Heritage Hierarchies: Unpacking the ‘Crossroads of Civilisations’ Concept

on 09 May 2024 (Thursday) at 16:30 h.

Abstract: The project examines the dynamics of heritage-making and the interaction of heritage and politics in contemporary Bulgaria. Through an anthropological study of two recent Bulgarian-French exhibitions at the Louvre Museum in Paris, focusing on Thracian and Ottoman past, it seeks to highlight the interdependencies and hierarchies between these heritage layers ascribed to different historical periods. While these layers are often presented collectively as a rich and specific cultural mosaic, they tend to remain obscured within the overarching concept of the ‘crossroad of civilisations’. By unpacking this assemblage to study distinct heritage layers separately and comparatively, the project unveils significant disparities in their valorisations, thus revealing existing dominant discourses and cultural conventions. These processes of (de-)heritagisation are further examined within the regional and wider European contexts in order to better situate national heritage politics within the ‘global hierarchy of value’ (Herzfeld 2003) and explore to what extent and how nationally produced ideas of heritage and their manifestations relate to, reinforce or contest the notions of Europe’s core and periphery.

Moderated by Natalia Kudriavtseva.