The Center for Intangible Cultural Heritage of Serbia, as the central expert body responsible for preservation of intangible cultural heritage, organized a program dedicated to understanding the role of museums and museum experts in the activities of preserving the intangible cultural heritage, as well as to promoting the importance of the UNESCO Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage. The meeting took place on October 17, 2023 at the Ethnographic Museum in Belgrade.
In the introductory part of the program, the attendees were greeted by Marko Krstić, Acting Director of the Ethnographic Museum, who emphasized the importance of working on presentation of the elements of the “living heritage” of Serbia, especially those included in the UNESCO Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity, as well as introduction of the general public, and particularly the younger generations, to these elements. He pointed out the necessity of organizing expert meetings and continuation of the dialogue on the preservation of “living heritage”, as the Ethnographic Museum will continue to actively participate in this field.
The President of the National Commission for Cooperation with UNESCO, Prof. Dr Goran Milašinović, reminded the audience about the development of the idea on establishing the concept of intangible cultural heritage, with a goal of valorizing and popularizing those cultural segments that are not material or represented by objects from various historical periods, but instead form the heritage “that cannot be touched” (Eng. Intangible). He reminded the audience of the international mechanisms of safeguarding the “living heritage”, including entries into the lists of intangible cultural heritage as defined by the Convention in 2003, providing the international visibility of intangible cultural heritage. He pointed out that the Republic of Serbia has already entered five elements in the UNESCO Representative List, with many other elements included in the National Register that may be proposed for the international list in the future period. He also stressed the importance of activity of Center for Intangible Cultural Heritage in working on these entries and the fact that properly and expertly prepared nominations in each of the previous cycles have resulted in successful and prompt entries of the elements of “living heritage” into this list. Concluding that the activities of the Center on safeguarding of the “living heritage” of Serbia represent some of the most active segments of work in the domain of the National Commission for Cooperation with UNESCO, he expressed gratitude to the Center for Intangible Cultural Heritage of Serbia on expert and dedicated work and wished them an even more intensive continuation of activities on safeguarding the intangible cultural heritage in cooperation with the heritage bearers and the local communities.
At the end of the introductory part, Danijela Filipović, coordinator of the Center for Intangible Cultural Heritage of Serbia at the Ethnographic Museum in Belgrade and member of the National Commission for Cooperation with UNESCO, addressed the audience. She pointed to the fact that the museums in Serbia have made great contributions to the implementation of the UNESCO Convention so far and are recognized as one of the institutions that can most easily adapt and incorporate work in various segments of safeguarding of “living heritage” into their activities. She explained that the UNESCO Convention brought a lot of new concepts into the field of cultural heritage, and the one that should be emphasized first is that the bearers of heritage are introduced into the ranks of equal “guardians” of cultural heritage so they are entrusted with the role of preserving and transmitting their own intangible cultural heritage together with the institutions. The heritage bearers are also invited to decide on the way in which their knowledge and skills will be passed on to the next generations. On the other hand, the museums are assigned a new task, which is to deal with the topic of preserving the changing heritage, as well as to go out into the local community and work together with the heritage bearers to preserve the “living heritage” and pass it on to new generations.
The second part of the program included an expert meeting “Museums and Intangible Cultural Heritage”, with participation of representatives of the Ministry of Culture, Center for Intangible Cultural Heritage and regional coordinators. The presenters reminded the participants that in the first 10 years of the implementation of the Convention, the Republic of Serbia relied primarily on the Law on the Ratification of this Convention (2010), while in 2021 two laws were adopted that introduced the field of preservation of “living heritage” into the legislative system of Serbia - the Law on Museum Activities and the Law on Cultural Heritage. At the beginning, Olivera Ignjatović, an independent adviser in the Ministry of Culture, introduced the topic “Activities of museums in the safeguarding of intangible cultural heritage in accordance with the new legal framework”, where she emphasized the articles of the law that refer to the rights and obligations of museums in the activities on safeguarding of the “living heritage”. She pointed out that with the new legislatives the museum activities also include the sector of safeguarding the intangible cultural heritage, and that the general safeguarding goals also include safeguarding of the intangible cultural heritage through cooperation with communities.
Danijela Filipović then presented the tasks entrusted to the Center for Intangible Cultural Heritage, which is recognized by the new legal acts as a central expert body in charge of safeguarding the intangible cultural heritage. She presented in more detail the obligations of the museum in relation to the registered elements of intangible cultural heritage, and as a significant novelty introduced by the Law, she singled out the recording of intangible cultural heritage. In accordance with that, she announced that in the coming period, the Center, while performing entrusted tasks, will prepare and deliver to all museums in Serbia the instructions for recording the “living heritage” at the local level, which would, at the same time, represent the first step towards the safeguarding and recording of this type of heritage.
The regional coordinators for intangible cultural heritage for Vojvodina and Central Serbia, Dr. Tatjana Bugarski from the Museum of Vojvodina and Snežana Šaponjić Ašanin from the National Museum in Čačak, presented the latest activities in working with the local communities and heritage bearers on research, documenting and transferring knowledge about elements of registered “living heritage”. Dr. Nataša Mladenović Ribić from the Center for Intangible Cultural Heritage spoke about the necessity of fieldwork with monitoring the current situation with the registered elements, but also of continuous cooperation and communication with element proponents and heritage bearers.
Then, in a conversation with representatives of museums from different parts of Serbia, previous experiences in researching the intangible cultural heritage and working with local communities were exchanged, but new steps were also indicated that should be implemented by all participants in order to identify and record the elements of “living heritage”, and later develop the plans for their safeguarding, with the aim of passing it on to new generations.
Photographs by: Ivana Masniković Antić, MSc.
