The interest in the choices, practices, and social uses of heritage has fostered the appearance and dissemination of the neologism "patrimonialisation" / "heritagization", which has been gradually introduced into the public activity and common sense of the different linguistic communities. The recurrence of a transitive and plural form reveals an emphasis on dynamic and multi-faceted operations applied to heritage objects through the interaction of diverse subjects, logics, frameworks, and experiences. Patrimonialisations provide a particular perspective on history by placing the choice and the preservation of the lieux de memoire (places of memory) at the center of social and political tensions, in the past and present. The discussion of centralizing hegemonies, as well as the attention to local singularities in their interactions with global history, point to new perspectives on patrimonialisations, particularly in postcolonial societies.
How do patrimonialisations operate in their historical genesis? What makes a public or private good, an expertise, a practice, or an event a heritage object? How are they identified and hierarchized? Do these hierarchies have an impact on the conservation and appropriation of heritage objects, as well as their incorporation into an increasingly standardized and globalized value system? Are the actors able to guarantee the preservation of what they transform into heritage for themselves and for future generations? Is it possible to define self- patrimonialisation and over-patrimonialisation? As a consequence of disputes and negotiations, of consensus and dissension, these processes are inserted into the global issues of heritage.
The anthropological approach of the different cultural experiences around these processes "invites us to reconsider the material world as an environment composed of medium, substances, and surfaces in permanent transformation" (CIHA, Call for Sessions). They include artistic creation, places of formation, workshops, exhibition spaces, the art market, the fabrication of materials, and other art subjects and fields. The increasing visibility of heritage assets offers new perspectives for research into these phenomena. Meanwhile, digital technology has brought a profound shift in the cognitive, aesthetic, and affective mobilization of heritage products and processes. Photography, having actively participated in the creation and perception of various heritages, has established a culture based on material and immaterial objects of the past while also undergoing technological and conceptual renewal of its practices and applications. The same could be said of the book, the museum, the monument, the landscape, or the work of art.
Patrimonialisation processes also indicate that material objects from the past and those emerging today are seen as materiality in permanent interaction with the choices of memory and oblivion. Exploring the similarities, differences, and connections between these processes, which can be highly heterogeneous, is essencial to art history, and vice versa. Despite the multiplicity of local approaches to heritage, patrimonialisations are concerned with the same global issues that run through art, its materiality, history, and future (The reference bibliography on the subject can be enriched by various contributions).
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