The Getty Conservation Institute Field Trip Report By F. LeBlanc, Head, Field Projects CUSCO / LIMA – Organization of World Heritage Cities Symposium - Scientific Committee Meeting October 18-26, 2004 Flag of Peru Organization of World Heritage Cities th 8 Symposium, Cusco, Peru, Sept. 19-23, 2005 The Organization of World Heritage Cities represents more than 200 cities that have been nominated to UNESCO’s World Heritage List. It holds biennial symposiums. The next symposium will be in Cusco, Peru, September 19-23, 2005. The theme of the symposium is: “Heritage of Humanity, Heritage with Humanity”. Ing. Carlos Valencia Miranda, Mayor of Cusco The GCI has agreed to collaborate with the OWHC and the City of Cusco to organize the scientific track of the symposium and to develop the curriculum for a heritage preservation introductory course for newly elected mayors and newly appointed decision-makers of world heritage cities. Understanding the place of human life in the city and how individuals and families, inhabitants and visitors, sense the physical space and value the place of Heritage Cities is key to understanding the dynamics that make each city unique. Denis Ricard, Director General of OWHC 1 This debate is fundamental but ambitious. How can we talk of how others experience their cities? How can we explain the sense of values, the perception of space and atmosphere? How can we present, explain, and also preserve these values? The approaches to the subject require the in-depth exchange of expertise and experience, but more than anything it is important to listen and speak out about values. This is why the Cusco 8th Symposium of the OWHC would like to take advantage of the unique Elizabeth Kuon Arce, opportunity offered by this meeting of Mayors, Decision Makers and Symposium Coordinator Professionals to guarantee a real platform for debate. To do so, the GCI proposed to organize the meeting so that each participant as an individual, professional and representative of a group, institution or entity, will have the opportunity to share his/her experience at small table discussions. One introductory presentation on each sub-theme, and short Cusco Cathedral, Plaza presentations of case studies, will guide the debates, the key ideas of de Armas which would provide the lines of thought on which participants, according to their responsibilities, would rely on and use in their task of preserving heritage cities. Meeting of the Scientific Committee in Lima and Cusco The Scientific track of the Symposium was developed around one Typical Cusco major theme and three sub-themes. It provides for one Keynote architecture, Plaza de Armas Speaker (major theme), three Guest Speakers (one per sub-theme), 9 Mayors and 9 Professional speakers (case studies in English, French and Spanish). Typical Andean musicians in typical restaurant Scientific Committee members at work in Lima Typical street in Cusco with colonial The Scientific Committee was created at the initiative of the GCI. Its architecture built on top purpose is to help the City of Cusco, the OWHC and the GCI to of Inca ruins. 2 identify and select the speakers, rapporteurs and facilitators for the Symposium. The participants were selected to ensure a broad universal coverage of case studies that will be presented by mayors of World heritage cities and professionals in this field. Dr. Dora Arizaga, an architect from Ecuador, helped with the selection of case studies from Latin America. Graham Brooks from Australia is the Chairman of the ICOMOS Dr. Dora Arizaga, helped International Committee on Cultural Tourism. He covered the with experts and cases selection of case studies and experts on this subject. from Latin America Jeffrey Cody, Sr. Project Specialist in the Education module of the GCI and former professor of architectural history at Hong Kong University brought his experience of Asia to the committee. Werner Desimpelaere contributed his knowledge of experiences in Europe. He is an architect and town planner who has worked extensively with the Council of Europe, ICOMOS, UNESCO and numerous international organizations. Graham Brooks, Chair, Lee Minaidis is Deputy to the Mayor of Rhodes. She is also ICOMOS Tourism Comm. Coordinator for European Projects and Development of OWHC. Her experience with the organization of the previous OWHC symposium in Rhodes during 2003 and her knowledge of the mayors of World heritage cities contributed greatly to the success of our meeting. Herman Van Hoof is an architect and a heritage specialist for Culture at the UNESCO regional office in Montevideo, Uruguay. His extensive knowledge of the World Heritage Convention issues in World heritage cities helped to select cases to highlight the Symposium themes. Jeffrey Cody helped with Denis Ricard, Director General of the OWHC, Elizabeth Kuon Arce, experts and cases from Symposium Coordinator for the City of Cusco and Cusco’s Mayor, Asia Carlos Valencia Miranda also participated actively to the Scientific Committee meeting. This meeting was to be held in Cusco, but because of flight cancellations by the national airline company Lan Peru, we had to change our plans at the last minute and organize the meeting in Lima. Because of this change of plans, the mayor of Cusco was to come and spend only a very short amount of time with us to welcome the participants and wish them a good meeting. But he decided to stay for our first session and seemed to be very intrigued by our “democratic” Werner Desimpelaere approach to the identification and selection of speakers and helped with experts and rapporteurs. So much so, that he not only spent that entire day with us cases from Europe but also came back for the second day. His point of view helped us tremendously to focus on the issues that were of interest to politicians. On behalf of the GCI, I welcomed the participants, explained the goal and objectives of the meeting and described the approach that is 3 based on the active participation of everyone who will come to the Symposium. Françoise Descamps very efficiently and professionally chaired the meeting, keeping us on track and on schedule. Claudia Cancino helped with logistics, her personal knowledge of Lima, a city where she lived and worked for many years and with the professional content of the meeting. Virginia Horton had to cancel and re-book almost every travel arrangement in the midst of this last minute cancellation of all national flights by Lan Peru and finally, David Myers, Elizabeth Jackson and Nick Swarts helped with the Lee Minaidis helped with preparation of documents. selection of mayors The Symposium theme and sub-themes were reviewed and defined as follows: The Main theme Heritage of Humanity, Heritage with Humanity. It is hoped that the world renowned Peruvian Xavier Pérez de Cuellar will accept the invitation to be the Keynote Speaker for this theme. The sub-themes Herman Van Hoof helped I – Citizen participation in the revitalization of world heritage cities: with his experience of successes and failures. UNESCO and of the II – Intangible heritage in world heritage cities: identifying and World Heritage supporting it. Convention III – Hosting tourists in world heritage cities: how to reconcile the needs of residents Potential Guest Speakers were identified for each sub-theme and a one-page description of the objective of each theme was prepared in the three working languages of the OWHC. These still need to be refined, but the essential is there. The participants also identified mayors and professionals who could present case studies on each sub-theme, in English, French and Françoise Descamps Spanish, while ensuring that the cases cover as many cultural regions chaired the meeting and of the world as possible. helped with her experience of town planning Finally, we reviewed the Symposium program, budget, and proposed facilities. These were three solid days of discussions and hard work but in the end, every participant agreed that we had achieved a great deal and that the Symposium looked like it will be an exciting and productive event. In Cusco, I visited the facilities where the Symposium is to be held and discussed with local architects Mario Castillo Centano, Oscar Contreras Florez and Grethel Cervantes Ordońez the plans for preparing the site and facilities. I also visited the various hotels where the participants are to be accommodated and the locations for special Claudia Cancino helped with logistics, her events. knowledge of Lima and Peru and her professional experience 4 Cusco Architect Mario Castillo Centano Symposium site located a few walking blocks from the main plaza and hotels Cusco is a relatively small city with a total population of approximately 300,000 inhabitants. It does not have a convention center like larger cities have. What it offers for the Symposium is a vast site that is used for festivals and concerts. Part of the site is covered by tent-like structures that will be fitted to accommodate up to 1,000 participants. This large space will also be fitted with movable partitions that will sub-divide the space into three sections for the discussions that will take place in French, English and Spanish. Acoustic tiles will be Cusco Architect Oscar Contreras Florez suspended to help with sound attenuation; each space will have its own projection screen and independent sound system. Large signs will invite participants to sit in the designated languages areas in order to minimize crowd movement. Participants will be seated at round tables with 10 chairs. Cusco Architect Grethel Cervantes Ordońez Symposium site close up view The open area of the site will be fitted with tents and other temporary structures to accommodate eating facilities, offices and services. This is a great space for this event. All activities will happen on site and no one will have to move to another location for breakaway sessions, to eat or to have access to services.