Paper short abstract:

This study analyzes the mediation function of the national territory, which is deconstructed at local level through a process of shaping the "citizen's memory" (Nora) in exhibit-rooms and private micro-museums.

Paper long abstract:

The purpose of this analysis is to shed light on the mediation function of space in the construction of patrimony by guesthouse owners in Romania. The stake of this study lies in its ability to bring to light the private forms of heritage identified on the dimensions of time and space. We explore the means by which people enshrine the "social memory" (Rautenberg) in a specific area and we analyze the functions entailed from the valorization of exhibit-rooms and private micro-museums by tourist practices. We believe that the "meaning is never given directly, but always mediated" (Parouty-David) by a mechanism (the patrimonial buildings), that is why the symbolic overloading of a certain kind of objects is always made in relation with the Other. Ricoeur considers that the heritage as an "expression of our being in the world" is constructed through the Other. According to Davallon, the heritage has a "social function", being a communication device that involves a relationship to the Other and gaining meaning in a mediated dimension of "putting something on display" for the eyes of the Other. In this sense, the production of heritage corresponds to the construction of shared values during this exchange and to a confrontation with new actors (the tourists) who become involved in this process of heritage production. How is this relationship from Self to Other embodied in heritage projects of territorial identity and how does it reflect a social construction mediated by the territory? - this is the main question of this study.