Al Musallam: Heritage is subject to renewal and development

Moderated by Dr. Mini Bounama, Director of the Content and Publishing Department at SIH, the session included different approaches to the relationship between heritage and creativity in context and topic.

Dr. Al Musallam mentioned that the slogan of the current session of the Sharjah Heritage Days (Heritage and Creativity) obliges us to raise and discuss important and in-depth questions and how to explore the depths of the relationship between heritage and creativity. He highlighted that many researchers and workers draw a red line that prevents heritage development through creativity as a concept, method and practice. They believe that the involvement of creativity in heritage leads to its destruction of entity and status.

Creativity in Heritage: An Inherited Approach
Dr. Abdul Aziz Al Musallam pointed out that parents and grandparents relied on traditional means and old holdings in homes, farms, and coasts, but they did not close the door to new tools and raw materials that helped to develop and benefit their lives. The same applies to the reuse of old traditional costumes and clothing and inherited social customs and traditions, pointing to the possibility of accepting the use of new raw materials for functional purposes without cancelling the original, which applies comparatively in the development of traditional crafts and popular literature, as well as the plastic arts that transitioned through many phases, leading to the postmodern stage.

Maintaining rules and assets
He explained that sustainable heritage accommodates development, renewal and creativity as long as it maintains the basic rules and templates and the realistic image of it and does not deviate from its original concept, as it is not possible to accept postmodern ideas that undermine all the value foundations and axioms of knowledge, heritage and previous human creations, and even seek to return to the first primitiveness, by getting rid of the old human legacy.

He stressed that the development of the activities and pavilions of the Sharjah Heritage Days is an excellent example of the possibility of adopting the concepts of creativity in the heritage aspects. The current activities include several scenes and manifestations comprising the exhibition (Heritage of Gold), which offers a beautiful experience in recreating miniatures and ornaments.

The genius of the place is in the heart of Sharjah
In his intervention, Dr. Majid Abdullah Bushlaibi, Secretary-General of the Sharjah Islamic Forum presented a qualitative comparison of creative cities and the experience of the Emirate of Sharjah in preserving Islamic and Arab heritage. He explained that discussing creative action in urban development is linked to heritage, creativity, inspiration, employment, etc.

New concepts for the development of creative cities
 He noted that many countries have begun searching for distinctive destinations in their cities and suburbs to develop and invest in urban planning to build a brand industry regionally and internationally. In this context, the lecturer said developing and transforming the old Sharjah area into an integrated site managed by private sector institutions with technical, marketing and commercial goals that are in the interest of the UAE.

COVID-19 has disturbed aspects of human communication
Dr. Ahmed Bahey El-Din, Chairman of the General Egyptian Book Organisation raised several important questions about the extent to which our future needs heritage for both the short and long term. He highlighted the readiness of future generations to manage heritage, indicating a difference in visions regarding the feasibility of using old traditional words and their acceptance and rejection.

Dr. Bahey El-Din, spoke about the Convention on the Intangible Cultural Heritage declared by UNESCO in 2003 and its impact on the return of interest to governments in the elements of this heritage and their efforts to develop and register them in the lists of UNESCO.

He called for the necessity of producing new terminology in dealing with heritage, differentiating the use of employment and inspiration for the heritage component, reviewing academic curricula related to cultural heritage, and developing Arab academic laboratories that extrapolate the living and unique Arab heritage.

The lecturer concluded his speech by examining the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on communication and human interaction between people. He spoke of the return of many members of society to domestic practices and customs that did not previously exist, pointing to the emergence of new contexts that can be relied upon in the transmission and preservation of heritage.