The Cult of Heritage in the Age of Hypermodernity

Our era is witnessing a considerable increase in the demand for 
heritage conservation. A new relationship with the past is being created, characterised by the 
protection of heritage in all its forms. We are witnessing the democratisation of interest 
in the legacy of our collective past. 
This, now massive, passion may be explained by our new relationship with historical 
time, marked by the exhaustion of faith in progress and the rise of individualistic 
desires regarding quality of life. If the general public values heritage, it is because it 
provides them with incomparable aesthetic and cultural emotions, albeit ones that are often 
linked to consumerist habits of leisure, entertainment and instant gratification. This is 
why we are increasingly witnessing the development of staging processes aimed at
transforming heritage into a commercial leisure asset, a backdrop, a playful 
spectacle, occasionally Disneyfied. However, this has in no way diminished the 
demand for knowledge and preservation of the historical and artistic legacy of the past, and its 
scientific knowledge.