‘Heritopia’ “signifies the land of the future, which is being pursued with the aid of a modernised heritage and World Heritage” (p. 246). It does not seek the future nostalgically in the past but looks for a utopia with the aid of the past. Heritopia begins with a description of UNESCO's famous international salvage campaign undertaken in the 1960s in Nubia with the temples of Abu Simbel, built by the Pharaoh Ramses II. These were threatened by construction of the Aswan High Dam and subsequent flooding by the Nile. The temples were deconstructed and rebuilt at a new site, becoming a tourist attraction visited by millions. The campaign was a great success and a milestone for ‘World Heritage’. This was followed by the World Heritage Convention in 1972, which was established to protect cultural and natural heritage of outstanding universal value for present and future generations.
Wienberg's attempt to address the relationship between World Heritage and modernity deserves recognition. As the case of Abu Simbel revealed, “heritage may prevent further modernisation—and modernisation may threaten the continued existence of heritage […] At the same time, though, modernity constantly makes more advanced forms of protection and preservation possible” (p. 188). As Wienberg argues, modernity and heritage, both as ideas and practice, are deeply entangled and this complex relationship means they cannot be considered dichotomous. Numerous contradictions stem mainly from tensions between progress and development and protection of heritage that create an obvious paradox: “the preservation of the past is impossible, and yet efforts are constantly being made to attain this goal” (p. 13).
This paradox is further strengthened by the tensions between two cultures of heritage that originate from different traditions. While ‘canonical heritage’ regards heritage as a non-renewable, threatened resource that should be preserved for the future by all means, ‘critical heritage’ views it as a burden to be redefined, and sees heritage as dominated by material culture linked to the West, its ‘inflation’, selection procedures and its modern use. Yet, as Wienberg argues, while both traditions fear threats to heritage, the first is concerned with threats to heritage, the second with threats from heritage.
Beginning with Abu Simbel and making use of numerous examples of World Heritage sites, Heritopia aims to understand and explain the importance of the past in the present and to reveal how history, memory and heritage are expanding. The book comprises seven chapters. The introduction sets the agenda and presents problems and several paradoxes, such as the impossibility of preserving the past; the relationship between preservation and change or protection and preservation, as an exception. Chapter 2 considers reasons, motives and values in preservation of the past, while ‘Chronic nostalgia’ (Chapter 3) discusses the (mis)use of the past and crisis theories, which regard interest in the past as compensation for phenomena in the present. Chapter 4 analyses central concepts of modernity (time, change, permanence, progress and decay), and presents a new perspective on modernity, while ‘Heritage in the present’ (Chapter 5) examines the growth of heritage and how the concept has expanded. Also discussed here are canonical and critical heritage, heritage vandalism and the authenticity of heritage. ‘Destination World Heritage’ (Chapter 6) analyses the World Heritage Convention, along with a list of outstanding and universal World Heritage sites, as an example of canonisation and also as a reaction against an ongoing inflation of heritage. The concluding chapter, ‘World Heritage and modernity’, introduces the concept of ‘heritopia’ and returns to Abu Simbel and other World Heritage sites in order to explain the paradoxes signalled in the introductory chapter.
Due to the multiplicity of meanings that people attach to heritage, the reader should expect a multi-perspective approach. Wienberg adopts an approach that can be described as ‘archaeosophy’ (p. 31), which blends archaeology, history, critical heritage studies, politics and development studies into a dynamic investigation, locating deliberations within a conceptual triad used to understand current conflicts around history, memory and heritage: namely, truth, beauty and goodness. Truth: knowledge about the past we need “to understand or explain the present and meet the future” (p. 55); beauty: aesthetics—we need “narrative[s] [about the past] that can enlighten, entertain, and perhaps also impose an obligation” (p. 60). Goodness refers to ethics and to a moral obligation to preserve the past. These categories complement one another and serve as the lens through which a deeper understanding—not just a description—of the multiple and complex relationships between modernity and heritage can be viewed.
Undoubtedly, Heritopia is a work of great erudition, with references to numerous archaeologists or heritage theorists (Holtorf, Lowenthal and Hewison), philosophers (Nietzsche, Kant and Benjamin), sociologists (Halbwachs and Bauman) and literary historians (Huyssen), among many others. Wienberg does not follow only the newest theoretical and methodological trends but refers to established works from which he draws inspiration, ideas and concepts. Moreover, the volume is accessible to non-specialists.
Despite some repetitious examples (e.g. the World Heritage sites of Dresden or Warsaw), Heritopia is a coherent volume that portrays heritage as an element of the present and a contested concept and practice, entangled with current political, social and cultural phenomena. Wienberg does not propose definite answers; rather, it emerges that choice of perspectives is crucial, forcing readers to rethink many concepts usually taken for granted. Moreover, he tries to bridge the gap between the canonical and the critical perspectives, demonstrating the need to unite these in order to understand heritage and heritage policies in the present.
As I write, the darkest face of modernity (and humanity) threatens not only World Heritage sites, but also peace in the world. Due to the unprovoked attack on Ukraine by Putin's Russian military forces, a dystopian scenario of horrific atrocities and war crimes—the shadow even of nuclear disaster—has returned. The World Heritage List already includes examples of war bombings and massacres: Guernica 1937; Warsaw 1944; Dresden 1945; Hiroshima 1946; Mostar 1993; Aleppo 2012; Palmyra 2015. I strongly believe that this will not be a fate of St Sophia Cathedral in Kyiv or The Ensemble of the Historic Centre in L'viv; we need no further examples! I hope that collective, decisive international actions will soon stop this madness of war, that peace will return, and that the past and present will be saved for the future. This is a true heritopia I am eagerly longing for.
Overall, Heritopia is an outstanding and thought-provoking book that not only offers rich accounts and concepts but makes an original contribution to debates around uneasy relations between World Heritage and modernity. Thus, it should be of relevance to anyone interested in approaching the crucial issues debated in the field of heritage, history and memory.
