• The replica of the Cosquer cave is due to open to the public in June 2022, on level - 2 of the Villa Méditerranée in Marseille.

  • The cave begins to take shape, and the first ornate panels are gradually integrated into the wall.

  • Behind the scenes, the tour is refined, especially on the lighting of the engravings.

Painter's pots line up on a trestle table. A little further on, just arrived from the workshops, the spectacular panel of the black hands awaits on the ground. Six months before the opening to the public, scheduled for June 2022, the construction of the Cosquer cave replica in Marseille is in full swing. About forty people are busy in the basement of the Villa Méditerranée, already immersed in a dim light atmosphere. “We are really at the moment when we are refining the cave as it will be seen by the visitor,” smiles Kléber Rossillon, whose group won the tender launched by the region for this project called “Cosquer Méditerranée”.

From the Toulouse workshops where the works of cave art are recreated to the Villa Méditerranée in Marseille where they are installed, the restitution takes shape over the days.



GEDEON Programs / ARTE France


© Kleber Rossillon & @ MaRegionSud-Provence-Alpes-Côted'Azur / 3D MC sources pic.twitter.com/lVDhU30OXy

- Grotte Cosquer (@grotte_cosquer) November 8, 2021

"We made the entire skeleton of the cave, part of it has already been resculpted", details Laurent Delbos, in charge of the site, who does not hide the feeling of coming back from afar: "The first time I went down to level -2 , I said to myself how we were going to fit a cave into this space!

By the time we won the contest, we didn't have the cave scan yet.

The challenge of the project was to imagine a system for cutting Cosquer's 3D model into six large scales, and to rotate them on themselves to find a way to arrange them by reducing the footprint on the ground, but without touching the integrity of the pieces.

"A geological garden, with lots of concretions everywhere"

To constitute the main matrix of the cave, several layers of concrete were projected on a wire mesh, stapled on steel cages. The wall decorations, recreated on resin panels, are then integrated. Like the three astonishing penguins, called to become the emblem of Cosquer Méditerranée. At the same time, a modeling plaster allows the walls to be sculpted and patinated to recreate the topography of the cave, down to the smallest details and engravings. “The speleophenes (stalagmites, stalactites, etc.) land last”, continues Laurent Delbos, who recalls how “Cosquer is a geological garden, with lots of concretions everywhere”.

"In Lascaux et Chauvet, we built the replica and the building around it, here we start from an already existing building and its constraints, it is much more complicated", underlines Kléber Rossillon. For example, the spiral staircase of the Villa Méditerranée was destroyed, to create the necessary depth for the well of the Cosquer cave. Another innovation: the tour will take place aboard an “exploration module” that can accommodate up to six people, and will walk along the 220 meters at very slow speed to have time to see the parietal works.

“The engraving can be seen if we illuminate it as when we made it,” he continues.

We work a lot on the lighting, everything is calculated for a median look.

»Henri Cosquer, the discoverer of the cave in 1985, spends time on the site.

His lamp will light up what he called “the hand of discovery”.

In La Ciotat, he is also putting the finishing touches to the replica of his old diving boat, the “Cro-Magnon”, which will be moored on the water basin.

Near the new gateway to the Villa Méditerranée, not yet visible this Friday but well and truly in the boxes.

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