Abstract/Summary

In 1962, the Deutsche Museum in Munich opened a 1:1 replica of a segment of the Altamira ceiling, intended to demonstrate the very first human application of paint as chemical knowledge. Taking more than five years of planning, the replica cast was heralded as a technical revolution at the time. ALTAMIRALTAMIRALTAMIRA is based on the complex relationship between the organisation and transmission of knowledge as it is administered in hierarchical and institutional structures. It is an attempt to chart a historical lineage of disputes around forgeries and the subsequent heurism and inevitability of the technical virtuosities and availability of replicas. It is a look at a specific economy of representations and their translations within the context of the managing and exhibiting of materiality of documents and narratives.