31/10/2008
Vitoria-Gasteiz, October 31, 2008-
Juan Ignacio Lasagabaster, managing director of Fundación Catedral
Santa María, will be presenting the management model of the Vitorian
church tomorrow in Valladolid as part of the framework of a heritage
congress. He will explain the details of work that, while restoring a
building architecturally, allows the building’s previous symbolic
qualities to be recovered with new, added values.
Lasagabaster has been invited to take part in the sixth edition of the
International Restoring Memory, an event in which he will present the
example the Cathedral of Santa Maria. In addition to providing details
about the ailing church’s entire rehabilitation process, his talk will
explain all the steps taken in successfully ensuring that a building
forgotten by many citizens would become an active part of city life, as
well as a referent for tourists.
In this sense, he will explain the sensitivity demonstrated by the
different institutional heads in charge at all times, which allowed the
project to advance through the Board and citizen involvement, thanks to
the Cathedral’s Circle of Founders.
As
part of the 2008 AR&PA Art Restoration Fair, the sixth edition
of the International Restoring Memory Congress will be focussing on
heritage management issues this year. Therefore, it has selected major
management models from Spain and abroad characterized by their
different perspectives and points of views, both in terms of public
management, difficulties involved in maintenance and conservation and
capacity to create true cultural projects with a marked social impact
in which the object’s value always prevails over its use. Likewise, it
will attempt to explain adjustments in new methodologies to the search
for sustainable and ecological approaches, both in managing and
restoring cultural materials and elements.
The congress, which will take place between today and Sunday in
Valladolid, boasts the participation of prominent international experts
in managing and conserving heritage assets, including outstanding
speakers such as Manuel Guido, head of UNESCO’s World Heritage List
Office, Antonio Jiménez, managing director of Fundación Santa María de
Albarracín, Guiseppe Basile, director of the Central Institute for
Restoring Rome, María del Mar Villafranca, president of Heritage
Alhambra de Granada, and Bernard Pouverel, director of a UNESCO World
Heritage Site, among others.
In addition to the Cathedral of Santa Maria, other
notable examples of conservation and sustainable management that will
be addressed are the historic city of Venice, the Alhambra of Granada,
Leon Cathedral, the archaeological project of Huaca de la Luna in Peru,
Pont du Gard in France and the Villas of the Veneto in Italy.