Elena Radoi

The Gap is the Message. Addressing Gaps in Historic Preservation.

Loss is in a fragile balance between remembering and forgetting: Through gaps, what is lost disappears, so that it could be forgotten; on the other hand, the gap exhorts us to remember the loss in turn.  So the question arises, how is loss inherited? How does loss become inheritance and how is loss transmitted and inscribed into inheritance? How does absence perpetuate itself in collective memory and what relevance do gaps have in identity construction?

The problem of inheriting loss is addressed through individual case studies in order to find out what happens when gaps become inheritable, when loss and destruction become key elements in identity construction, how complex the mechanisms of inheriting gaps can be, and how the participating actors act in their social and identitary constellations. From a heritage theory perspective, the project seeks to establish the gap as an epistemic category rather than a deficit characteristic: Gaps in cultural heritage are not only to be filled, but also to be known.

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Publications

• To fill or not to fill? That is the question! In: Nowalińska, Małgorzata [Hrsg]: 3rd International Student Conference of Conservation and Restoration of Works of Art, Cracow, 17th–19th March 2016, Studia i Materiały, Tom. III, Cracow 2016, pp. 43–50.
• Restoration meets Linguistics: Ghenadie’s Iconography. In: Margineanu-Cârstoiu, Monica [Hrsg]: A.R.A Reports, No. 7/2016, pp. 139–146.