Heritage as threshold: an autoethnographic exploration of the porticoes of Bologna (Italy)

Abstract

The contents and aims of this paper derive from an autoethnographic exploration of the porticoes of Bologna, which in 2021 became part of the UNESCO World Heritage List. It was the difficulty of their candidacy process, which is not usual for Italian urban heritage, that shaped my concern with them. I conducted empirical research by walking under the porticoes in order to understand the reasons behind their otherness as official heritage and how these reasons can represent an interesting case for current geographical debates on heritage in its cultural dimension. Drawing first of all on the fact that my embodied experience of the porticoes was a liminal experience, I argue here that their otherness lies in being heritage as threshold by developing this idea in two ways. The first way consists of interpreting the spatiality of the porticoes in the light of the concept of threshold. To the extent that a threshold, as conceived here, is not a boundary but a zone of transition where binary terms are held together and interact with each other, the spatial nature of the porticoes as thresholds challenges the sedentary certainties and sharp boundaries of ‘authorized heritage discourse’. The second way in which I conceive and develop the idea of heritage as threshold consists of relating it, through the example of the porticoes, to the process of heritage-making. From this point of view, the idea of heritage as threshold is a spatial interpretation of the process of construction, deconstruction, reconstruction of heritage, whenever based on the interweaving of official discourses and everyday experiences, on their reciprocal influence and transformation. The construction of the narrative on the porticoes as heritage represents a perfect example of this process of transition and interchange between different perspectives – a process closely associated with the spatiality of thresholds.