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In 1992, the Generalitat de Catalunya (Catalan autonomous government) started what was then called the Heritage Photographic Experience. Its aim was clear: to bring youngsters closer to the monumental heritage, so that they would learn to discover it, value it and love it.
The way this was to be achieved was also clear: this coming closer was to be a personal experience, not a competition, nor a new academic exercise more or less disguised as field work.
An educational aim
The results immediately surpassed expectations as the young people revealed a surprising creativity. Direct contact with the historic buildings had been achieved and had made possible, without a doubt, a personal and creative response on the part of the students.
Another fact also became clear: even if the places to be photographed were the same year after year, the young people always managed to take new photos, contributing a new vision that could never have been imagined and of very high quality. A clear demonstration that the springs of creativity never run dry.
This constantly-renewed creativity should not be seen merely as a nice teaching methodology in art and architecture. Because at the same time it is a lesson in democracy and diversity, which teaches us to take account of the views of others as a basic condition for knowledge.
And this is a lesson in quality globalisation. It is, in fact, education for life.
The educational aim had been achieved.
An international objective: Europe, a common heritage
The European monumental heritage is a common heritage.
This is so because of history, because of the fact that our peoples share cultures and religions, artistic schools and architectural styles, constructional techniques, etc., and also because of linguistic influence, economic relations, because of wars and the continual redrawing of frontiers for many, many reasons.
The young people came to understand the variety that is necessarily implied by local differences, and at the same time, the similarities and unity that underlie this enormous diversity.
This second aim, therefore, was not a desire for geographical or quantitative growth. The aim was that the young people of each country should feel that they were working on a shared project, based on a heritage that belongs to all of us.
A monumental heritage which is the pride of all countries without exception.
Hence, the elements had to be found that would make this objective visible.
Thus it was decided that the young prize-winners from all the countries would receive the same diploma, at a ceremony to be held at the Palace of Europe in Strasbourg, and that their photographs would be published in a common catalogue, in which they would be presented in each country's own language and with translations into French and English, the official languages of the Council of Europe.
Each country would also undertake to organise an exhibition of the prize-winning photographs from all the countries, to be held during the month coinciding with the European Heritage Days.
A family that never stops growing
Andorra, Catalonia (Spain) and Poland set out on this adventure in 1996.
In 1997 five more countries joined, and the same year the IHPE received the European Heritage Days prize, awarded by the Council of Europe and the King Baudouin Foundation.
Over the years, growth has been continuous, so that by the fourteenth year the event was held (2009), simultaneous participation had reached the record level of 58 countries. The statistics (figures up to and including 2009) are easily summed up: more than 200,000 young people, from 66 countries in four continents, have taken almost 1,300,000 photographs in the course of the first fourteen years.
The IHPE has been awarded, in 2008, with the Heritage Medal, by the European Union /Europa Nostra Prizes, due to its educational work in the field of cultural heritage, along the years.
Outstanding items of world heritage
Figuring in the history of the Experience have been historic buildings and sites as outstanding as the Duomo in Florence; the Grand Place in Brussels; the Fosse Ardeatine in Rome; the medinas of Meknes and Rabat; the monasteries of Alcobaça in Portugal, Sant Pere de Rodes and Santes Creus, in Catalonia; the Parthenon in Athens, Notre Dame and the Panthéon in Paris. Also, there have been natural landscapes and parks, such as Plitvice (Croatia), Lafontaine in Montreal (Canada), Sveksna (Lithuania) and the Cinquantenaire in Brussels (Belgium) Domestic architecture has also been represented, with examples from Cyprus, Macedonia, Greece, Spain, Lithuania, Andorra, etc., as well as the urban heritage, with photographs revealing the extraordinary monumental riches of cities such as Dubrovnik, Manheim, Lübeck, Toledo, Katowice, Carthage, Baku, Evora, Glasgow and Petra, amongst others.
À la carte promotion
The range of themes for photography has therefore been a very extensive one, interpreting heritage in the broadest sense possible.
This freedom has been complemented by the dissemination of the photographs through a great variety of channels: hundreds of exhibitions, local catalogues, focused sessions in schools, posters, Web sites, permanent exhibitions in town halls and other institutions, articles in specialised photographic or education magazines, seminars, etc. There are even governments that use the photographs by their country's prize-winners to send Christmas greetings.
Neither must we forget the exhibition that is held every year in the hall of the Palace of Europe in Strasbourg, coinciding with the diploma award ceremony.
A great team
The support, right from the start, of the Council of Europe and the framework of the European Heritage Days have been providential for the dissemination and consolidation of the IHPE, which... "is fully in line with Council of Europe recommendations regarding the raising of heritage awareness and heritage education, as well as the framework agreement that resulted from the 2005 Faro Conference", as pointed out by Mr Daniel Thérond, the head of the culture and natural and cultural heritage department of the Council of Europe.
Many hundreds of teachers and many thousands of school students have participated enthusiastically in the IHPE. They form the solid foundations on which the IHPE is based.
Indeed, the young photographers have many representatives who are already well-known around the world, I am referring to the 1,900 photographers already to have received awards and who have seen their photographs published in the catalogues.
The teachers, however, remain anonymous despite the fact that are they who have stood behind the young participating students, accompanying them, giving them information and advice and often encouraging them by setting an example with their own photography.
Our sincere thanks are due to the EHD coordinators and the local organisers in all the countries.
And, of course, we would like to express the same sincere thanks to those who have sponsored the common catalogue: Kodak, for the first four years, Agfa-Gevaert from 2000 and Starblitz, since 2006.
And a word of hope
The snowball continues to grow as does the hope that the day will come when young people around the world, and adults too-why not-will see the best examples of the heritage of the peoples as the wealth of all.
Esteve Mach Bosch
IHPE Coordinator
Barcelona, September 2009 |
