“12 For a War – A Peace Mission” – Outcomes of a Voluntary Action Aimed at the Conservation of Cultural Heritage

Abstract

The paper is referring to the recovery, preservation, restoration, and reconstruction of an old wooden loom from Veneţia de Sus, Părău village, during a voluntary action for cultural heritage conservation. The volunteer restorers were 12 students of the Faculty of Wood Engineering of the Transilvania University Brasov, who started this action as a “war” against time and degradation, indifference and oblivion, factors causing too often irremediable losses of a significant part of our cultural heritage. "Let us weave our future with respect to the past" was the action logo, which was finalised by a “peace treaty” when the mission was successfully accomplished. The paper presents the phases of this action including documentation on this type of traditional artifacts, identification of the recovered elements of the old wooden loom, analysis of their initial conservation state and preservation – restoration operations, up to valorisation of this action by exhibitions and events meant to raise public awareness on the importance of conserving tradition and cultural heritage.