Session: #662

Session, made up of a combination of papers, max. 15 minutes each

José Antonio Las Heras was the director of the Altamira Museum, from 1991 until 2016, when he died in a fateful car crash. He was responsible for the new strategy for presenting prehistoric rock art to the public that was unveiled in July 2001 with the new Altamira museum. This strategy was largely based on an exact replica of the cave to absorb a higher number of visitors than the original, providing didactic information to stimulate the public curiosity. As a result, the new Altamira museum not only set the standard for archaeological museums in the twenty-first century in Iberia (followed by MARQ-Alicante, Human Evolution-Burgos, MAN-Madrid …), but also started the increasingly widespread trend in creating replicas (being Lascaux and Chauvet the best examples to date). As a tribute to Las Heras, this session brings together contributions that raise questions about ersatz, authenticity, copies, identity, and emotion in the use of cultural heritage. The key aspect is addressing these issues from the perspective of Walter Benjamin's art in the age of mechanical reproduction, but also in terms of the impact of digital technologies, the “ontological turn” and the emergence of an age of replicas and fakes that challenge conventional ways of addressing identity, originality and veracity. Which is the balance between conserve the heritage and disseminate its significance? Is the original the only way to approach historical discourses to the public? Could copies transmit the same emotions as the original? José Antonio had many ideas about these topics.

Replica, ersatz, authenticity, rock art

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Professor Dr Felipe Criado-Boado (Spain) ¹

Professor Dr. Hakan Karlsson (Sweden) ²
Dr. David Barreiro (Spain) ¹
Mr. Antoni Nicolau (Spain) ³