Lascaux IV, Chauvet II, Planet B

Lascaux II was a partial three-dimensional replica of the original cave built on site, Lascaux III an international itinerant exhibit of movable panels reproducing the cave’s most famous scenes. Lascaux IV proposes a complete replica integrated within an interactive museum environment. The replication project continues: Chauvet II in 2015; Cosquer II in 2022. How these replicas were built is well documented (within the limits of trademarked secrecy). What is less clear and what this article sets out to examine, is the relation these replicas of Paleolithic sanctuaries sustain with the increasingly uninhabitable world in which they appear.