Beyond the intangible/tangible binary: an analysis of historic built environments in Valencia, Spain

Abstract

This paper is a theoretical reflection aiming to understand how specific assets of intangible heritage are affected by contemporary discourse. This approach focuses on understanding the protection, preservation and re-enactment of the intangible heritage found in Spanish rural landscapes. By an analysis of the global, national and regional laws, the paper addresses the need to approach the intangible, understanding the peculiarities of places that shape the scenery. The places and 'Assets of Cultural Interest' analysed in this paper are defined as geographic areas associated with a historic event, activity, or people, which exhibit cultural and aesthetic values. Following this definition, these landscapes are experiential cultural spaces, involving a complex set of elements, fixed, semi-fixed and unfixed. The way in which these traditions are viewed and experienced by locals and foreigners plays a central role in many intangible heritage studies, as does the way in which it reflects integrity, authenticity, attachment and a sense of identity, and how it anchors collective memory. It is the intention of this paper to emphasise the need to transfer the phenomenon of intangible heritage from the realm of a lived experience to the world of living places. In doing so some questions arise: Is the intangible cultural heritage contained in rural landscapes authentic? Is it simply the materiality, the past act or the past cultural process, or is it the way the intangible cultural heritage has been managed until today? Are we applying critical considerations to inner and outer perceptions, appropriations and transmigrations when managing cultural heritage?