Bardkontakt 2018

Upcoming Bardkontakt Conference (edition XXVI) is devoted to a special but widespread part of the protection and preservation of the cultural heritage – the issue of protection, maintenance, management and perspective of the cemeteries and memorials in the life of municipalities. The topic will be judged in the context of preserving local traditions, presenting the values of this heritage, improving the life conditions of the community and the further development of local site.

 

Throughout the world, there are preserved burial grounds, cemeteries, memorial sites, and individual graves, they are all created in a different way, differently worshiped and otherwise managed. They are often supplemented by artworks - sometimes with abstract or metaphorical characters, sometimes with a particular person or a situation that reminds people of an important past event. These deliberately structurally composed and adapted objects or areas that serve to remind a person (usually already dead) or an event that happened and which is considered worthy of constant remembrance, are typically called monuments.

 

Despite the generally perceived undertone of the fatal necessity of the end, cemeteries, memorials and monuments enter into the daily life of people, into the economically productive processes          of society: except for the production of tombstones, products and services related to the maintenance of graves and entire cemetery grounds, there are also evolving services in connection with the rituals and maintaining traditions. The tourism services, educational and intercultural exchange activities are joining, too, in recent years. They have   a considerable, highly sensitive position in the frame of development programs and in the development plans of towns and villages. Their management, regulation or regulation is not easy at all: it requires a complex, well-coordinated approach and program-based system solutions.

Thematic areas of the conference:

• Recognizing and mediating history through monuments, memorials and cemeteries – characteristics and contexts from the time of creation, timeless reference and perception of memorial monuments

• Specific type: reminder of combat events and military operations

• The use of memorial monuments in the context of life and development planning of towns and villages - priorities (?) of conservation or development, conditions versus the limits of their application, the potential of complementary services for community development

• Management and protection of memorials - public and private "partnership": research and presentation of values, assistance of public and professional institutions, maintenance - common and specific requirements (safety, lighting, etc.), ...

• Transfer of knowledge - presentation of good examples (and other) experiences, ideas, suggestions for solution

 

The conference will provide the space for interdisciplinary discussion - sharing experiences between participants in each of the areas concerned. The members of the Slovak Chamber of Architects, the Slovak Chamber of Civil Engineers, the Slovak Chamber of Restorers, the employees of the Monument Board of Slovak Republic, the members of Association of Towns and Municipalities  of Slovakia, representatives of municipalities, experts from the academic environment and artists' community, other participants in the processes of programming and realization of development      of municipalities, representatives of citizens' initiatives, investors and all who are interested in this topic.