Artist creates video opera inspired by ancient Cave paintings

Artist Oliver Beer created an audio and video installation titled The Cave at the Kiasma contemporary art museum in Helsinki.

The work draws inspiration from the Font-de-Gaume cave in southwestern France, a site on the UNESCO World Heritage list known for its prehistoric paintings of bison and deer. Beer obtained a rare permit to record and sing inside the cave, which houses paintings created more than 15,000 years before the common era.

He observed that the cave's limestone walls caused the space to resonate most strongly in areas with high concentrations of paintings. He noted that the cave's architecture, including chapel-like sections and tube-like passages, acted like organ pipes, amplifying even whispers into massive sounds. The installation features eight singers from different parts of the world who performed the earliest songs they remember from their childhoods, such as lullabies and Haitian voodoo chants.

Beer arranged these melodies to harmonize with the specific tonal keys of the cave. The project includes 16 audio channels and eight video projections designed to make visitors feel as if they are inside the French cave. Beer describes the project as a way to explore what has remained constant for 19,000 years. He states that the work aims to highlight the shared human need for music and connection to ancestors. The exhibition at Kiasma runs until March 28, 2027.