the essential
Designers were invited in 2022 by the Quercy Natural Park to give free rein to their imagination in a small cave near Pech-Merle. This experience was filmed by the prehistorian and filmmaker Marc Azéma who looks back on the genesis of the project.
“Picasso and Soulages dreamed it, seven big names in comics did it! » enthuses the prehistorian and filmmaker Marc Azéma. “It’s a unique experience in the world that I had the chance to film.” For this archaeologist and documentary director, who has just finished a film dedicated to the Chauvet cave for France Télévisons, there is no shortage of superlatives to talk about this artistic adventure.
In September 2022, six cartoonists and a renowned comic strip artist were invited by the Causses du Quercy Regional Natural Park. For 10 days, Edmond Baudoin, Chloé Cruchaudet, Étienne Davodeau, Emmanuel Guibert, David Prudhomme, Pascal Rabaté and Troubs left their drawing board to find themselves in the shoes of prehistoric artists. Together, they gave free rein to their imagination in a small cave, an old mushroom farm, not far from Pech-Merle. They expressed themselves using the techniques and gestures of their Paleolithic ancestors. With their artistic choices today, the designers were confronted with the support of the limestone wall which influenced their drawings. This contemporary cave art experience allowed us to go back to the origins of art. “I had already seen contemporary artists drawing in caves, but it was often done in a very theoretical way and lacked spontaneity. » explains Marc Azéma, who was a member of the Chauvet cave scientific team for 15 years. “This is why I say that this experience in the Lot, Picasso and Soulages certainly dreamed of it! Picasso was impressed by the dexterity and talent of Stone Age artists. And our seven designers did it! Never before had we given artists such freedom.”
A film and a book to tell the story of this artistic adventure in images
The result? More intuitive, more flexible and more creative work. “Some designers had in-depth knowledge of techniques with natural pigments, others less” explains Marc Azéma. “But gradually, in a more or less unconscious way, they all managed to create creations at the level of prehistoric artists, 20,000 years ago. But without copying them, each designer brought his desire, his style and his universe. That’s what’s great! » Marc Azéma recreated the experience in images in the film Rupestres which should be previewed at the Angoulême Comics Festival at the end of January 2025. The film will then be scheduled on February 8 at the Grand Palace in Cahors and in March at the Pech Merle prehistory center, in the presence of the artists. The book Pigments, already available from Futuropolis editions, brings together in images the testimony of the designers through eight short comic strip stories, with the participation of Marc Antoine Mathieu. The drawings made in the cave are reproduced throughout the pages thanks to the photographs of Rémi Flament. As for Marc Azéma, he signs the first part of the book dedicated to the discovery of rock caves.
France
