Sheltered in an industrial building located in the Simancas neighborhood, a few meters from Ciudad Lineal, the sarcophagus of Pharaoh Seti I, the Brazilian sacred cave Kamukuwaká and two Assyrian winged lions coexist among dozens of contemporary works in impossible ways. We enter the Factum workshop, a kind of art laboratory unique in the world where, in addition to giving life to works of artists of today, they recreate historical pieces with the latest technologies that, at first glance, are indistinguishable from the originals . His main work, the latter, is a kind of lifesaver of cultural heritage, as it leaves fingerprints all over the world in order to preserve art for the future.
Although they have been working on this for almost 20 years, their project remains unknown to much of the public. It all started in 2001, when British painter Adam Lowe and artist and engineer Manuel Franquelo set up a multidisciplinary workshop where creators could experiment mixing new technologies with traditional artisanal techniques . A space that started with 10 people and in which today more than 50 work among artists, technicians and conservatives. "We wanted to document the heritage but we had no money, so being where we are now is a dream, " explains Lowe, director of Factum Arte (who is responsible for producing the work of contemporary artists and facsimiles) and founder of the Factum Foundation (which since 2009 documents and disseminates assets).
The works of Anish Kapoor, Marina Abramovic, Jenny Holzer, Jan Hendrix, El Anatsui or Marc Quinn have gone through their workshop or continue to do so. Although its most important mission is to scan old works of art in 3D to obtain a high resolution digital file that offers data for conservation. And then, if necessary, rematerialize those works in the form of a facsimile - be it a painting, a sculpture or a grave - or create virtual restorations of those damaged by the passage of time.
They are not counterfeiters , they say, because their intention does not go beyond preserving the culture, nor are they marketing information, because the data they obtain always belongs to the owners of the works. His work as art copiers focuses mainly on manufacturing facsimiles for exhibitions , as in the case of the funerary chamber and the sarcophagus of Seti I, or to put a work back in its primitive place, as in The Wedding at Cana de Veronese, whose original is in the Louvre and whose reproduction now hangs in the refectory of San Giorgio Maggiore in Venice.
«We must always explain what we do. Many people see negative connotations in the copy because they believe it detracts from the original, but it is the opposite. We help protect the original for future generations, "says Factum Foundation project director Carlos Bayod, adding that" the main idea is to digitize the work before it suffers damage or modifications because having information is essential for its conservation and diffusion".
Unique techniques
The techniques used for this purpose are unique and the high resolution of their work distinguishes them from other market players. In fact, they have created their own scanners and printers because "what existed in the market did not help them create exact facsimiles , " says Bayod. Tools that have been used to digitize hundreds of works of art from the world's leading museums and that have been using the Valley of the Kings in Egypt since its inception in the funeral chambers.
This is how a work of art is reproduced
Drop down
They explain in Factum that the digitization of the frames is carried out with two techniques: the Lucid scanner, which gives information of the relief; and panoramic photography, which captures the color. Then, with digital printers, you get a base with the relief and a skin with the color that come together to get the final piece.
To register sculptures, they use photogrammetry - photos that create a 3D model - or laser and white light scanners. Then, a kind of robot sculpts the material with precision or another machine prints the piece in sheets that are joined. In both cases, the works are retouched by conservatives.
There they landed in 2001, commissioned by an architect, to reproduce a part of the tomb of Seti I , the most important in Egyptology, and they continue there. Later, at the request of the Egyptian Government, they recreated that of Thutmose III for an exhibition and, years later, that of Tutankhamen , which is currently exhibited alongside the original to preserve the latter from mass tourism and whose digital data have served Egyptologists to develop new hypotheses.
Today, in a center in Luxor they continue to digitize the tombs of the valley within the initiative Theban Necropolis Preservation and by the Ministry of Antiquities of Egypt, the University of Basel and the Society of Friends of the Royal Tombs of Egypt, so that in the future there are files of its current state. And, in addition, they are training local youth so they can continue the work.
Specifically, they are “documenting the relief of the walls of the entire funeral chamber of Seti I, hundreds of square meters, to make a complete facsimile that can be installed near the original; digitizing 8,000 fragments of the grave that are scattered to try to make a reconstruction; and reproducing panels that are in different museums to join objects that will never be able to be together ”, details Pedro Miró, head of the 3D and photogrammetry department at Factum. «Egypt needs tourism but at the same time mass tourism is ending its culture. Facsimiles can contribute to sustainable tourism, ”said Miró about this project, which, when completed, will be the largest and most detailed facsimile ever recreated.
From Egypt to Iraq, Brazil or Rome
But this point in the world is not the only one in which Factum has been deployed. In his workshop there are still prototypes of two lamassu (Assyrian winged lions) that he has reproduced - scanning those who live in the British Museum - and donated to the University of Mosul after the war destroyed the sizes of Iraqi institutions. And next to them, there is also the recreation of the sacred cave Kamukuwaká (Brazil), waiting to find funds that take it to its final location to safeguard the original. Although the one that has already reached its destination is the copy of the cave of the Fallen Risco (Gran Canaria), a World Heritage Site.
But in addition to these impressive 3D objects, in Adam Lowe's laboratory they have recreated paintings (which are not fascimile) destroyed or stolen in the twentieth century, such as the portrait of Churchill de Sutherland for a television series. And the team has moved to Venice to digitize Bansky's graffiti before his possible loss due to flooding, to the Victoria and Albert Museum in London to scan, by day and night, Rafael's cards on the occasion of the 500th anniversary of his death or at Pantheon of Rome, where the painter is buried to rematerialize his grave, which will be exhibited in another exhibition at the Scuderie del Quirinale this March.
Now, they are immersed in the project of the Natal House of Velázquez , which will open in Seville in 2021, making replicas of the Sevillian era of the artist located in different art galleries in Europe to be exhibited in that interpretation center next to recreations of spaces, Objects and furniture.
In addition, the Bishop of Auckland initiative, which is promoting the first museum in the United Kingdom dedicated to Spanish art, has commissioned facsimiles of Cardinal Tavera's grave and a portrait of El Greco located at the Tavera Hospital in Toledo, where they work with the Ducal House Foundation of Medinaceli. And in the near future, he will reproduce the Bakor monoliths and document pieces of Easter Island .
As if that were not enough, a retrospective exhibition will show in Bologna evidence and projects created in Factum, such as reproductions of museum objects, books and manuscripts, among which the Griffoni Politico panels stand out, an altar painted around 1470 whose parts are scattered throughout the world.
With an eye on the outside especially, Adam Lowe's real dream is to " work more in Spain , the most important country in the world in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries." The delegate of Culture of the City of Madrid, Andrea Levy, was interested a few months ago by Factum, and he proposed to scan the Temple of Debod to be able to have a digital file of its current state of conservation, although the Consistory, say from the company , has not given an answer.
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