  This work introduces liftings and their associated Young measures as new
tools to study the asymptotic behaviour of sequences of pairs $(u_j,Du_j)j$ for
$(u_j)_j \in \mathrm{BV}(\Omega;\mathbb{R}^m)$ under weak* convergence. These
tools are then used to prove an integral representation theorem for the
relaxation of the functional
  \[ \mathcal{F}\colon u\to\int_\Omega f(x,u(x),\nabla u(x))
\;\mathrm{dx},\quad u\in\mathrm{W}^{1,1}({\Omega};\mathbb{R}^m),\quad
{\Omega}\in\mathbb{R}^d\text{ open}, \] to the space $\mathrm{BV}(\Omega;
\mathbb{R}^m)$. Lower semicontinuity results of this type were first obtained
by Fonseca and M\"uller [Arch. Ration. Mech. Anal. 123 (1993), 1-49] and later
improved by a number of authors, but our theorem is valid under more natural,
essentially optimal, hypotheses than those currently present in the literature,
requiring principally that $f$ be Carath\'eodory and quasiconvex in the final
variable. The key idea is that liftings provide the right way of localising
$\mathcal{F}$ in the $x$ and $u$ variables simultaneously under weak*
convergence. As a consequence, we are able to implement an optimal
measure-theoretic blow-up procedure.
