Opening Remarks and Forbes Prize Lecture

By Dee Stubbs-Lee and Ahmed Shayo

The 30th biennial Congress of the IIC kicked off this morning in Lima, Peru. Welcoming remarks were given by Congress Chair Juan Carlos Rodriguez (Director of the Center for Heritage Research and Conservation at UTEC and the 2024 Congress Chair), Carlos Heeren (CEO of UTEC), Julian Bickersteth (IIC President), and Marisol Ginocchio (Ministry of Education and Culture, Peru).  

Julian Bickersteth noted that approximately 250 delegates were in attendance live and in person at the Universidad de Ingenieria y Tecnologia (UTEC) in Lima, with a further 300 attending live virtual hubs throughout Latin America and a whopping 1500 registered to join us virtually from all around the world. That makes this congress one of the largest ever gatherings of conservators, a situation that creates unprecedented global networking possibilities to work toward a “fairer, greener, and more sustainable future” in keeping with this year’s congress theme of “Sustainable Solutions for Conservation, New Strategies for New Times”.

Carlos Hereen commented that “Peru is our lab”, meaning the country, with its rich heritage dating back more than 5000 years, is the perfect place to have established UTEC’s Center for Heritage Research and Conservation, a program and a national heritage in which he obviously took great pride as he urged all the delegates to go out and explore as much of Peru as we can, joking that “there is no meeting on Monday that is more important than seeing these sites”.

Following these words of welcome, our 2024 Forbes Prize recipient, Dr. Luiz A. C. Souza, FIIC (LACICOR) delivered his opening lecture, entitled “I’d Love to Change the World: One Heritage at a Time”. Dr. Souza related the history of the cultural heritage profession developed in Brazil, with a special emphasis on the creation and development of various educational programs. He spoke in detail about the development of networking within the profession in Brazil and internationally, and of the critical importance of including everyone’s cultural heritage and the social relevance of conservation. He stressed the importance of prompt disaster response and risk management, of sustainability, and of recognition of diversity and inclusion of neglected communities Dr. Souza wrapped up his presentation with a rousing 3-minute video presentation set to rock music that commented on the devastation being caused by climate change on the world’s cultural and natural heritage, with interspersed sound bites from Malala Yousafzai, Greta Thunberg, and video footage of climate protests concluding with the refrain “I’d love to change the world, but I don’t know what to do, so I’ll leave it up to you”. What a memorable opening talk! No one could be unaffected by Dr. Souza’s passion and energy!

Julian Bickersteth (left) and Juan Carlos Rodriguez (right) watching the Forbes Prize Lecture by Dr. Luiz Souza

Author bios

Dee Stubbs-Lee is an objects and preventive conservator in New Brunswick, Canada

Ahmed Shayo is an MA student in Manuscript Cultures at the University of Hamburg