Paper short abstract:

Urban artifacts (Rossi) as material witness to understand the convergence of memory and history in a social setting aiding the construction of place identity.

Paper long abstract:

The construction of place identity is complex, mixed and a peculiar constellation of history and memory that is bound by both the collective and the individual. Understanding of the construction of this identity through urban artifacts or the built environment within the city or a social setting blurs' the edges between where history ends and memory begins. As the relationships established between 'man and stone', is set to aide not just the construction of history but also the making of place. The link between past, present and future is made through their materiality (Rowlands 1993), materiality of objects that aide in construction of places by providing stimuli for remembering, what Umberto Eco calls as 'sign vehicles'.

Urban artifacts as place or sites of memory are necessary to create environments of memory and history within the city (Nora) that has a communicative role in society. The rhetoric between the act of history and memory followed by the representation of the same through commemorative building follows an interesting path of converging places of memory and history as seen with the Old Bridge in Mostar, BiH.

I propose to explore within the scope of this paper, built objects as physical markers and a material presence to understand the convergence of memory and history. Through a site of memory (the Old Bridge), history/ memory has been reintroduced into the city through the rebuilding of the demolished bridge, contributing to the notion of making of place as well.