A “copy” of the cave ornate semi-englouty is now accessible to the public, in the Villa Méditerranée, in Marseille. The fidelity of the restitution contributes to the emotion of the visit.
by
You have to imagine Marseille before Marseille, long before. 33,000 years ago, in the middle of the ice age. With a level of the seas and oceans 135 meters below, the shore was several kilometers away and the creeks were cliffs overlooking a steppe that horses, bison, megaceros – the largest cervid ever knew – and where we saw Also large penguins, a species now disappeared whose individuals measured 80 centimeters high. There, at the foot of what is today the Calanque de la Triperie, led a hose leading to a cave that humans at the time occupied and adorned during several phases, until 19,000 years ago, there Leaving paintings and engravings to Gogo.
Then the climate warmed. Then the sea returned and the water went up, went up, so much so that the hose filled with water, that the cave was largely overwhelmed and fell into the greatest of the oversights. Until today in 1985 when, 37 meters deep, diver Henri Cosquer found his entrance. For a long time he made his secret garden, visiting the cave from time to time – without, for years, being able to distinguish the paintings – and ended up declaring their discovery in 1991, following the accidental death of three divers . The Cosquer cave was born but remained inaccessible and only researchers could enter it to study it.
Today, she comes out of the invisible thanks to her “copy”, a very faithful replica which opens its doors in Marseille on Saturday June 4. It is a “restitution”, according to official terminology, in the sense that it is not a perfect double. For two main reasons. First of all, the topography of the original cave is such that it is sometimes necessary to crawl, sometimes climb, to see the different parts: unthinkable to impose such a obstacle course on visitors. Second reason: the facsimile is installed at level – 2 of an existing building, the Villa Méditerranée, designed by the Italian architect Stefano Boeri and which has never proven its usefulness since its inauguration in 2013. To bring the 2,300 square meters of cosing in the 1,750 square meters of this basement, it was necessary to compose, juggling with the supporting structures of the building and the security imperatives. Do a little copy-paste with the different spaces of the cave.
Almost initiatory journey
On the other hand, no compromise on the accuracy of the works. The cosquer walls were photographed, scanned, digitized to be reproduced identically thanks to resin panels on which the artists then recreated the horses, ibex, saiga antelopes, penguins, as well as the multitude of “negative” hands , these stencils where only the outline of the fingers is expressed. But the biggest of loyalty would not work if the atmosphere of the cave, which participates in emotion, was not well rendered. The result is at the rendezvous, thanks to the know-how of Stéphane Gérard, plastic artist specializing in the return of concretions, all these stalactites, stalagmites, mineral draperies and other fistulars who demonstrate the mineral life of Cosquer.
You have 36.21% of this article to read. The continuation is reserved for subscribers.