The 2006 UISPP -  XV Congress
Lisbon, Portugal, 4^th – 9^th  September 2006
 
Session: _________________

Symposium: ROCK ART AND MUSEUM

Co-Chairs: 

Prof. Dr. Dario SEGLIE, Museum of Prehistoric Art Director, CeSMAP, Pinerolo; Dept. of Museography, Polytechnic of Torino, Italy.

Dr. Guillermo MUÑOZ, Director, GIPRI, Colombia.

Dr. Giorgio DIMITRIADIS, Director, HERAC, Greece.

RATIONALE (call for papers):
            The name rock art is traditionally attributed to all non-utilitarian anthropic markings on rock surfaces; the term "art" is utilized latu sensu, without aesthetic implications, according to the Latin etymology that defines the human activity of producing artefacts, hence the derivation of the words artisan, artificer, artist.

            Rock art is today only the "residue" of ancient cultural complexes, conserved over time, while songs, prayers, dances, gestures, votive offerings etc. are unrecoverable, but it displays the spiritual abundance of our oldest ancestors.


            The keen interest in rock art derives from its relative rarity, as sites that testify the cognitive dimension of man; the main problem facing us now is conservation, protection and communication.

            To identify the best procedures for a valid protection it is necessary to plan monitoring with instruments recording the variability in the environmental parameters and the impact on the rock monuments, in view of the primary conservational necessity.

            The symposium will critically consider the propriety  and feasibility of treating rock art of the past as a source of knowledge for the contemporary interpreter, examine the possibility that such knowledge may be distorted  by subjective ethnocentric perceptions, and explore the necessity of evolving museological models, which can present and conserve rock art without reflecting current prejudices and predilections.

            The symposium will also focus attention on the existing and pristine relation of the rock art landscapes with adjacent landscapes, humanized by local communities. An attempt will

be made to assess the possibility of restoring  the custodial interest, if any, of such communities in the rock art landscapes; and, to recognize the constructive, constitutive and creative role

of rock art and the associated folklore in the conservation and replenishment of such landscapes.

            The contributors may like to address  themselves to the question of inter institutional cooperation across the globe for a quest into appropriate ways of documenting and presenting rock art within a museum, for inciting aesthetic, technical, ecological, cultural and touristic interest of visitors, and, for fulfilling convergent objectives of conservation, education, research or appreciation.

            Rock art museums, projects or institutions, in open air or indoor, as cultural interpretation of reality, is a form of cultural heritage conservation technique.

            Museology and museography of rock art should be sciences devoted to the survival of this spiritual legacy of humanity.