Narrative and Sensory Politics of (Un)belonging: Spatial Memory in Heritage Walks and Public Art Exhibitions

Abstract

This paper examines storytelling as a spatial politics of (un)belonging in heritage walks and public art exhibitions as forms of applied memory-making. While much geographical scholarship has focussed on affective politics concerning architectural heritage and memorialisation, this paper addresses the less traversed domain of intangible heritage and the affective atmospheres they generate. In doing so, the research foregrounds the resurfacing and remapping of intimate and ordinary memory works in non-western contexts. The research, conducted in Delhi and Kolkata, India, identifies two forms of storytelling that facilitate the expression of applied memory and heritage making. The first form is located in the emergence of heritage walks in Delhi, where storytelling as a narrative form, along with other multisensorial modalities, fosters affective atmospheres that connect participants with the multifaceted past of the city. The second form is a public art exhibition in Kolkata that uses stories of street sounds and smells from vernacular literature and collects them in the present to uncover people’s place-based memories of the city's sensory heritage. The paper contends that heritage walks and immersive exhibitions promote a sense of place belongingness but also reveal the politics of (un)belongingness by capturing fragmented, subtle and hidden memories. It emphasises the contentions in temporalising spatial memories through sensory experiences and storytelling, bridging the emotional gap between individuals and their city's historical past in the wake of a troubled and politicised present. The research shows the possibility to democratise the epistemology of heritage-making, through patient storytelling and illusive past-presencing.