The Heritage of the City

Discussion organised by the Faculty of Arts, University of Ljubljana in cooperation with Hiša! Association, the National Liberation Museum Maribor and Rajzefiber

Traditionally, the cultural heritage in Slovenia and in Maribor has been linked to national myths or to regional ethnographic differences. The starting point of our discussion is that the heritage of Maribor and its surroundings is greater and more varied than the registers in museums and institutes can record. It is therefore necessary to introduce it into the tourist offer correctly.

The field of cultural heritage in Maribor is defined by a number of societal oppositions: topographical-social (city-suburb-countryside), generational (four political-economic systems in the 20^th century), ethnic, class, and institutional (state-local-civic). Each of these oppositions has or has had its own human organisation, economy, cultural networks, ideologies, identities and styles - its own cultural heritage. The recognition of such multifaceted heritage today is not only a political, but also an economic project of societies. Cities around the world are integrating their memorial institutions, clubs, workshops, services and know-how into tourist industries. The organisers of the discussion ask how to position the relationship between the domestic or integrative purpose, on the one hand, and the market purpose, the exporting of heritage, on the other?

Experts from the fields of sociology, anthropology, literature, museums, journalism and others will participate at the colloquium.