The Adventure of the Chauvet Cave Replica

Once the topography and the rock surface were reproduced, the wall ornamentation phase began. The paintings were positioned precisely using HD video projectors whose projected image allowed the builders to place the drawings in the right location and to apply a technique inspired by decals. This work was entrusted to artists who could enter the real cave several times. They were accompanied by members of the scientific team studying the Chauvet Cave.

Before being integrated into the geological setting in concrete, these reconstructed rock art panels were discussed at validation meetings that brought together the project owner (Syndicat mixte de l’Espace de restitution de la grotte Chauvet, SMERGC), representatives of the Scientific Committee set up by SMERGC, and the team of Alain Dalis. Here is the Owl Panel (in the foreground on the top right).

The panel of the Fresco of the Horses is finished. It will be prepared for shipment to Toulouse to the workshop of Gilles Tosello, a prehistorian and plastic artist who was commissioned to work on the ornamentation of two more iconic frescoes of the Chauvet Cave: the Fresco of the Horses and Fresco of the Big Cats.

In July 2013, the main building is barricaded a little more every day behind its continuous walls that conceal the replica. A main metal frame (foreground at the top) with 25 m long spans will support the roof of the building as well as a secondary frame. It is on the latter where the Chauvet Cave replica will be suspended.

The energy injected into the act, the depth of the line, the speed of execution of the drawing are perceptible in this reconstruction of Paleolithic works. Materials matter as much as the rock wall that hosts the work. Gilles Tosello uses natural materials very similar to those collected in nature and prepared by our ancestors 36,000 years ago. The execution of the Chauvet Cave replica takes on an experimental archeological perspective.

The skeleton of the cave

Back in Ardèche on the construction site, since the end of summer 2013, the site has been gathering a community of skilled workers who will turn into a group cemented together by this unique project. These newcomers will manufacture the metal skeleton of the future replica.
This framework is shapeless and does not have the symmetry or the biological logic of a living organism.

How does one make a metal frame whose size exceeds the surface area of the national stadium of France?

A very mundane solution was devised: invent folding tables. Above the two tables are suspended video projectors that outline the topographic profiles of the cave walls, soils, and vaults by means of a projected green laser. More than 60 miles of metal rods will be bent and assembled by hand.

Once labeled, these rods were then welded to form metal cages. Each cage outlined the morphologies of the cave more and more every day.

One by one, the cages were brought to their location. What we had created in our minds became a reality that we frequently visited and observed in the humid coolness of the limestone mountains of the Gorges of the Ardèche…

…we were witnessing the rebirth of the Chauvet Cave.

This work of reconstructing the geological life of the cave was managed by Danièle Allemand and Stéphane Gérard. Each micro-gour found its place, each straw became unique, and each drapery covered its thin calcite veil in the Frigos workshops.

In November 2013, the frame of the vaulted ceilings of the replica was sprayed with concrete. The company Aab was responsible for the job. They went into action with their sculptors who had to undergo a crash course in geology while in the field. This knowledge, acquired intensively and conducted in the Chauvet Cave and other caves, very quickly afforded them scientific and artistic enjoyment and assurance with regard to the work.

The Chauvet Cave replica was painted with a mineral coat. The speed varied between 3 to 60 square feet per day, depending on requirements of the reconstruction work.

The site of the Fresco of the Horses was reached in March 2014. This adorned object was embedded in the concrete decorations of the replica. This was precise and delicate work. In addition to the weight, the shapes of this wall involved a physical balancing act sensitive to the smallest displacement.

In other areas of the replica, the decorations were finished. The construction site mutated into Chauvet Cave 2.0. Yves Poisson, head of the sculptors in charge of the vaulted ceilings of the replica, checked the work of his teams by means of virtual reality, a tool that was conceived and introduced for the very first time in France to carry out a cultural project.

Like the adorned panels and the concretions, the same resin-based materials were used to replicate cave bear bones. This photo, from bottom to top, shows three skull models very faithfully duplicated: a skull of a juvenile, a skull of a female, and the last, that of a male. The largest skull exceeds 45 cm (0.5 in) in length.

Once finished and validated scientifically, the resin bones were positioned on the ground. This precise action takes into account the slope of the ground or the water flow rates which, in the real cave, relocated and displaced the bones.

In the silence of the Toulouse studio, David Sarre-Doublet brings the final touches to a quasi-sacred work.

In another part of the replica, the sets are completely finished. Like the molt of a snake, distended remnants inherited from the site are languidly hanging on the walls.