Kurmo Konsa MODERN CONSERVATION: CONNECTING OBJECTS, VALUES AND PEOPLE

The past exists today in the form of objects, memories and landscapes. Of course this existence is illusory; objects, memories or landscapes have not remained the same throughout time. The past can still only exist in people’s heads and nowhere else. At the same time, people constantly require objects that recall the presence of the past. It is difficult to foresee the future, but it can be created. One of the most important materials available to us for building the future is the past. The future not only depends on the past, but it is literally built on the past. Heritage is a technique that must be used as effectively as possible to resolve the local and global problems of societies today and in the future. If we do not do so, heritage will become unnecessary, at least in the form that it had developed by the late 18th century and is still in use today.1 Heritage is a technique that we use today to create the present and the past and it depends on our current choices rather than on the past. Heritage is only a tool, but we should not forget that it is a very powerful tool for making these choices and implementing the decisions based thereon. Heritage is always the carrier of definite values and meanings. Educing these values and taking them into account forms the basis for the management of the entire heritage process. According to the contemporary approach to heritage, the physical and spiritual aspects of heritage are