Declinations of the concept of authenticity

In the operational activity for the preservation of existing heritage, the tangible elements of material testimonies (buildings, city centres, territories) are interwoven with the intangible meanings to which such things refer. Today’s wide scope of action of the preservation of cultural heritage (ranging from the architectural scale to the territorial dimension of the landscape, its natural and anthropic manifestations), besides giving it a decisive responsibility for the transmission of cultural goods to the future, has undoubtedly also a strong potential in activating virtuous economic processes. In fact, the awareness and the involvement of the community in relation to the heritage translate into the growing demand for knowledge, conservation and valorization. Such a positive phenomenon, if appropriately governed, can trigger virtuous processes of significant economic reach. The coexistence and balance between the two components - '’tangible' and 'intangible' - in the heritage, and the variety of meanings that can be attributed to them, is however crucial to the operational choices they can achieve. The "immaterial" aspect of the testimonies, in particular, is extremely delicate, especially with respect to the consequences that its interpretation may have on the "material" related testimonies. The issue revolves around the various declinations of the concept of authenticity that can be found in different cultural spheres, as is the case in the globalized landscape in which today restoration is discussed. On the one hand, there is the risk of distorting the meaning of the 'immaterial' testimony, with the consequence of promoting and motivating the restoration and falsification of the surviving 'material' testimony. On the other hand, however, in the concept of immaterial testimony there is a range of potentials not yet sufficiently explored, that could significantly corroborate and integrate the knowledge, the sense of belonging and cultural sharing of the communities (or of the people), and thus the promotion of the preservation of historic heritage. The writer's contribution aims to reflect on this issue, which is important for the development and the teaching of conservation, within the discussion topics of the workshop.