Transcultural Research – Heidelberg Studies on Asia and Europe in a Global Context

Transcultural Research – Heidelberg Studies on Asia and Europe in a Global Context Series editors Madeleine Herren Thomas Maissen Joseph Maran Axel Michaels Barbara Mittler More information about this series at http://www.springer.com/series/8753 Katharina Weiler • Niels Gutschow Editors Authenticity in Architectural Heritage Conservation Discourses, Opinions, Experiences in Europe, South and East Asia Editors Katharina Weiler Niels Gutschow Cluster of Excellence South Asia Institute Heidelberg University Heidelberg University Heidelberg Heidelberg Germany Germany ISSN 2191-656X ISSN 2191-6578 (electronic) Transcultural Research – Heidelberg Studies on Asia and Europe in a Global Context ISBN 978-3-319-30522-6 ISBN 978-3-319-30523-3 (eBook) DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-30523-3 Library of Congress Control Number: 2016940915 © Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2017 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are reserved by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, express or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. Cover illustration: Delhi, Humayun’s Tomb (ca. 1569), west side. The mausoleum for the second Mughal Emperor stands on a vaulted terrace which rises from a square plinth measuring 12,000 square meters. It marks the center of a Quranic paradise garden divided into four quadrants. In front of the building stands the group of conservation experts who joined the on-site meeting on 14 November 2009, organised by the research project “Aspects of Authenticity in Architectural Heritage Conservation.” After years of restoration, the site has been inaugurated on 18 September 2013. Photo by Niels Gutschow, 14 November 2009. Printed on acid-free paper This Springer imprint is published by Springer Nature The registered company is Springer International Publishing AG Switzerland Preface This collection of essays presents opinions and experiences in the field of architectural heritage conservation in Europe and Asia. The essays reflect a variety of meetings and encounters between conservation architects, art historians, and craftsmen. The different voices were collected by Niels Gutschow and Katharina Weiler over a period of four years, from June 2008 to May 2012, in the framework of the research project “Aspects of Authenticity in Architectural Heritage Conservation” under the aegis of Heidelberg University’s Cluster of Excellence “Asia and Europe in a Global Context.” The transcultural discourse was initiated with the international workshop “Concepts of Authenticity in Architectural Heritage Preservation” on June 16, 2008, at Heidelberg, followed by site visits in Darmstadt, Frankfurt, Munster,€ Brunswick, and Berlin with Wim Denslagen (Utrecht, the Netherlands) and Krishna Menon (Delhi, India). In October 2009, Mohan Pant (Bhaktapur, Nepal) and Rabindra Vasavada (Ahmedabad, India) were made familiar with the authenticity of ruins as memorials to loss in war at Brunswick, Berlin, Hamburg, and Hanover. These site visits were followed by a workshop in Heidelberg. Visits to Delhi by Niels Gutschow and Wim Denslagen and discussions with Ratish Nanda (Delhi, India) and with Rabindra Vasavada in Gujarat were undertaken in November 2009. Together with Rabindra Vasavada, Katharina Weiler visited marble quarries and stone workshops in Makrana, Ahmedabad, and Pindwara in March 2010 in order to document craftsmanship. In September the same year, Katharina Weiler and Shaohua Grasmuck-Zhang€ (Heidelberg, Germany) visited sites in Beijing, China; Niels Gutschow and Yujie Zhu (Heidelberg, Germany) joined in Xi’an, China, in October. The site visit by Niels Gutschow and Christoph Henrichsen (Andernach, Germany) focused on the workshops of the Ise shrine in Japan. This book does not tie together its contributions in a way one would expect from a volume of proceedings and may, at least at first glance, appear disparate or even incoherent. Yet, this overview demonstrates that the project sought to work with art historians, architects, anthropologists, and conservationists from Nepal, India, China, and Japan, rather than on theories and practices prevalent in South and v vi Preface East Asia. A network was established that ensured linguistic and cultural compe- tence. The present essays show that notions of authenticity are transferred, appro- priated, revived, reconfigured, contested, or refused in highly transformative processes. A range of parameters, not merely the one termed “authenticity,” are proposed for identifying architectural values with reference to a particular monu- ment. In observing relevant contemporary practices, most articles attach an over- whelming importance to craftsmanship, claiming an unbroken tradition which owns an intrinsic authenticity. Three documentary films were produced that focus mainly on craftsmanship. They testify to the creativity and authenticity of workmanship. The motion-picture camera was operated by Christian Bau. The first film The Spirit of the Architecture versus Material Authenticity. The Conservation of Humayun’s Tomb in Delhi, India documents an on-site discussion with Niels Gutschow, Wim Denslagen, Ratish Nanda, A.G. Krishna Menon, and Janwhij Sharma on November 14, 2010. The second film Jain Architectural Heritage—Building New and Restoring Old Temples in Gujarat, India features on-site talks held from November 18 to 20, 2010, between Niels Gutschow and Rabindra Vasavada with craftsmen at the Nandishvara Dvipa at Umafai Tuk, at the workshop of the sculptor, Arvindbhai Ishwarlal Sompura at Palitana, the temple architect Virendra K. Trivedi in Ahmedabad, and Nimesh Shah, production manager at Trivedi Marbles. As exam- ples of new temples the Vardamantirtha at Varman and the Suguna Vihardham at Rojit were visited. The third film The Authentic Replica—Rebuilding the Shinto Shrines at Ise (Japan) by Niels Gutschow and Christoph Henrichsen documents crafts at the shrine’s workshop (Yamada Kosakujo¯) in preparations for the sixty- third renewal of the shrine from May 15 to 20, 2011.1 The case of Ise even demonstrates that recreating a shrine is not done in secular space and time, but it is framed in such a way that it turns into worship. The articles and documentaries contribute to a discussion on “shifting asymmetries in cultural flows”—the ultimate goal of the Cluster of Excellence, initiated by the German Research Foundation (DFG) and the German Science and Humanities (Ger. Wissenschaftsrat) in October 2007. Our results demonstrate that authenticity is an assigned value (Pendlebury 2009, 7f.) and, in the words of the historian James Clifford (b. 1945), even “something produced” (Clifford 1989, 77). Our aim was to unveil and recognize the “specific nature” of heritage values in various cultural contexts in providing space for voices which remained widely unheard. This way, both academic and practice-oriented methods and analysis are set out and accepted as such, and different competences and cultural contexts are 1 All films are available for download via http://onlinefilm.org/. Preface vii considered in order to overcome the traditional limits of historiographic research in the field of heritage and conservation studies. Authenticity has thus been recontex- tualized in a new field of tension. Heidelberg, Germany Katharina Weiler Niels Gutschow References Clifford, James. 1989. “The Others. Beyond the ‘Salvage’ Paradigm.” Third Text. Third World Perspectives on Contemporary Art & Culture 6, edited by Rasheed Araeen: 73–77. Pendlebury, John. 2009. Conservation in the Age of Consensus. Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge. ThiS is a FM Blank Page Acknowledgment Without the support from the Cluster of Excellence, initiating research into aspects of authenticity in architectural heritage conservation from a transcultural perspec- tive would have been impossible. Special thanks are due to Andrea Hacker of the editorial office for her great management of the book project, to Andrew Jenckins for careful and competent translation and copyediting, and to Lea Dirks for tech- nical assistance. The documentation in this book incorporates (historical) photographs and draw- ings taken from various archives around the globe. We should like to express our special gratitude to Universita¨tsbibliothek Heidelberg, Archiv des Landesamtes fur€ Denkmalpflege Hessen, Landschaftsverband Westfalen-Lippe Denkmalpflege, Landschafts- und Baukultur in Westfalen-Lippe, Bayerische Schlosserverwaltung,€ Roland Rossner (Deutsche Stiftung Denkmalschutz, Bonn), Foto Volster (Wismar), Hansestadt Wismar/Angelis und Partner, Jorn€ Duwel€ (Hamburg), British Library (London), Victoria and Albert Museum (London), Canadian

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