Cave Painting Centre Montignac – Lascaux, Dordogne building design images, French architecture project news

International Cave Painting Centre France

New Dordogne Architecture: Lascaux Cave Scale Replica design by Mateo Arquitectura

Montignac – Lascaux, Dordogne, France

Design: Mateo Arquitectura

The Conseil Général de la Dordogne (France) recently organized a competition for the construction of Lascaux IV, a complete scale replica of the Lascaux cave, at Montignac, at the foot of the hill where the actual cave is situated.

“…any one who has common sense will remember that the bewilderments of the eyes are of two kinds, and arise from two causes, either from coming out of the light or from going into the light.” – Plato: “Allegory of the Cave”, The Republic, Book VII

image from architect

12 Dec 2012

International Cave Painting Centre

A gentle slope leads us into the earth and gradually accustoms our eyes to the dark.

There … we are inside. Our only contact with the outside is the presence close by of the hill, an enduring mass that guards the treasure within. Then there is the wood and, more vaguely, the sky.

The rock offers the invitation of a light-filled breach. It calls to us, to enter. To experience history as it happened-that of the most spiritual discovery of the century. By way of a prelude, a long descent bordered by a mutant landscape leads us to the entrance to the cave, under the taiga of the ice age.

Centre International de l’Art Pariétal Montignac Lascaux Film on Vimeo

Centre International de l’Art Pariétal Montignac Lascaux (France) from on Vimeo.

The cave opens up to us. It lights up the timeless beauty of the raised figures with a tremulous light as we pass, fading away behind us.

As we leave the cave, our shadows flicker in an ascending movement towards the daylight. Further on, the sun guides our steps to the upper level.

Up there is another Lascaux-one that presents its walls as monolithic figures overlooking landscapes of yesterday and today; one that is presented to our understanding, that invites us to live the experience, to do the right thing; one that shows us what is concealed and reveals to us its secret. It speaks to us of its history, woven of enigmas that humankind seeks to solve. It tells us that there are individuals who think, who prove, who suppose and interpret. Right beside, their virtual doubles welcome us in small theatres sunk into the ground, facing the hill. Here, the staging employs a poetic dialogue between archaic matter and intangible technology. It extends the masterly gesture of the anonymous artist.

images from architect

To build this architecture, you have to open up the earth delicately, tread carefully on the hill, raise strong walls and lay down thick slabs. You approach these operations with a primary logic, both archaic and contemporary. You touch the ground attentively, letting groundwater follow its course. The walls and the structures are minimum, simple, and sitespecific: they have a tectonic presence.

Outwardly, the building expresses a telluric force. Its mineral quality resembles that of the Castle, or of the bridge over the river Vézère.

The object of the space is to convey the emotion of Lascaux, the presence close at hand of something that is distant and elusive. Here, “We must read the past as a future waiting to be discovered”.

International Cave Painting Centre – Building Information

Author: Josep Lluís Mateo
Location: Montignac – Lascaux, Dordogne, France
Surface: 8.180 m2 bâtiments + 6.5 Ha espaces extérieurs
Budget: 34.000.000 €
Scenography: Projectiles
Landscape: D’ici-la
Multimedia: Reciproque
BET TCE: Setec Bâtiment
Acoustics: Commins acoustics workshop

International Cave Painting Centre France images / information from Mateo Arquitectura

International Cave Painting Centre Dordogne design : Mateo Arquitectura

Location: Montignac – Lascaux, Dordogne, France, western Europe