France’s Lascaux cave museum celebrates 10th anniversary with year of events
The International Centre for Cave Art contains a full-scale replica of France’s famous cave paintings
The Lascaux cave was discovered in 1940
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France’s International Centre for Cave Art, also known as Lascaux IV, is marking its 10th anniversary with a range of events to celebrate one of France’s most famous historic sites.
The Centre is a full-scale replica of the Lascaux cave, which is home to over 600 prehistoric wall paintings, and has been a Unesco World Heritage Site since 1979.
The original cave, discovered by four teenagers in 1940, has been closed to the public since 1963 after the paintings started deteriorating because of the heat, humidity and carbon dioxide produced by so many visitors.
Lascaux IV, located just 400 metres from the original site in the village of Montignac-Lascaux, Dordogne was constructed in just two years by a team of artists, architects and experts and today, welcomes some 400,000 visitors each year.
Housed in an 8,000 metre-square building, the replica sits alongside immersive spaces that use virtual and interactive technology to introduce visitors to cave art and help them understand their history and significance.
Among the highlights of the 10th anniversary events is the show Une seule Humanité (One Humanity), a film that will be projected onto the walls and floor of The Immersion Room, a space that uses state-of-the-art technology for a range of immersive shows.
It is directed by Jean-Paul Jouary, an expert in prehistoric art.
"Some people think that because there are differences between peoples, there are therefore different and hierarchical races. However… what I wanted to show with images, is that for 35,000 years, there has only been one humanity,” Mr Jouary told France Bleu.
“We all come from the same branches of travel across the planet, probably starting from Africa. In this room the goal was to show that there are two ways to prove the unity of humanity. There is DNA, the evolution of our species, etc, which is absolute proof. And then there is Paleolithic art.”
Other events this year will include a multi-artist exhibition on Lascaux this month and in May, a new exhibition chronicling the discovery of the Lascaux caves during the Second World War.
In June, a narrated visit, ‘Music in Prehistory’ will see children make instruments inspired by the Paleolithic period.
Lascaux IV, as the name suggests, is not the first replica of the famous cave.
In 1983, Lascaux II opened close to the original cave, reproducing some 85% of the paintings, and in 2010, the Lascaux III replica was taken around the world on an international tour.
