Gastvortrag: Martina Oeter über Cultural Heritage.
04. November 2025
16:15 - 18:00 Uhr
KU Linz: Hörsaal 1
The lecture series “(Re)Constructing Paradise: Religious and Transcultural Perspectives on Ideal Spaces" begins by introducing and critically examining both historical and contemporary approaches to architectural historiography. While traditional architectural history has long relied on western focussed systems of measurement, chronology, and hierarchy, global and postcolonial theories have challenged these frameworks by disrupting Western-centric narratives and evaluative models.
Martina Oeter critically analyses different approaches to international cultural heritage policies and will presents several examples of practical heritage conservation in non-European countries.
Attendance is free - no registration required! / Eintritt frei - eine Anmeldung ist nicht erforderlich!
Is there a general agreement on how to interpret the world? Case studies of architecture and art conservation in non-European countries
Martina Oeter (Parsberg)
The controversy surrounding the difference between the 'modern West' and ‘the rest of the world' also dominates cultural heritage preservation with its declared reference to Western modernity. Does material cultural heritage, such as historical buildings, seem worthy of preservation in Western society due to a generally accepted admiration for historical testimonies, detached from religious cult? This focus on materiality and history is still perceived as Eurocentric in other parts of the world today.
The postcolonial discussion about oppression and liberation has not stopped at this field either, leading in recent decades to many international conferences and agreements that grant greater acceptance beyond the Western understanding of cultural heritage, to spirituality and the transformation of cultural heritage. What is interesting here is that a consensus has been reached that acknowledges different concepts in the West and the rest of the world due to different historical experiences and social and religious orders. The global perspective therefore consists of accepting otherness, seeking not similarities but differences.
The lecture and subsequent discussion aim to shed light on this perspective and challenge it with case studies.
About the Speaker
Dr Martina Oeter works as a freelance conservator of architectural surfaces and from 2011 to 2021 has been lecturing at Regensburg Technical University in the Faculty of Architecture. She studied conservation of wall paintings and stone objects at the University of Applied Sciences in Cologne and obtained her M.A. in Conservation Studies at the Institute of Advanced Architectural Studies, University of York. Martina received her Ph.D. at Bamberg University on the dichotomy of heritage conservation in the Global North and Global South.
Her research interests reflect her work experience in European, African, and Asian countries and the commitment to an integral approach, which combines scientific, technical, and social aspects of heritage conservation.