Introduction: arts, heritage and performative politics

Although art and heritage are closely related and, indeed, can mean the same thing, they are often seen through the lens of objects and as two different and separate categories. This chapter argues for refocusing from heritage artefacts to performative and political art heritage. Building on a variety of inspirations from performance, political aesthetics and practice-based approaches, this chapter seeks to engage with the complexities of performative and political heritage aesthetics, seeking to bridge the gaps between the representational and the non-representational, the discursive and the felt, in a holistic perspective. This is done in three main steps: (1) by making visible gaps of authorised aesthetics/authorised heritage discourse via artistic and everyday practices, as well as within the frictional and contested spaces between authorised aesthetics on the one hand and counter-aesthetics or affective commons on the other; (2) by acknowledging how art heritage intertwines with ‘theatrical’, artistic, personal and everyday contexts for its presentation and use; and (3) by proposing art-based heritage practice as an alternative way of studying, doing and thinking about heritage. Finally, the chapter introduces the empirical themes of the chapters collected in this book and how they deal with performative politics of art heritage through three main themes: art heritage as archiving; art heritage in relation to publics; and art heritage across rural and urban landscapes.