Bells were cast last night in the East End of London for the first time since the closure of the Whitechapel Bell Foundry. The bells were formed by Andrew Lacey, the expert in historical casting techniques. Talking about this initiative, Andrew said:
'The idea for the pop-up bell foundry came from Adam Lowe, founder of the Factum Foundation. He asked if I could create a new bell to be cast as a symbolic gesture in support of the efforts that have gone into trying to save the Bell Foundry in Whitechapel. In response, I made three bells based on a medieval pattern but cast with 21st-century technology. A point made by Factum Foundation is that, for the bell foundry not just to survive but flourish, it must embrace the best of modern technology to ensure that the historic casting of great bells has a sustainable future.
I got involved in this project because I felt so strongly about saving the Bell Foundry. When we lose an institution such as the Whitechapel Bell Foundry, not only is there a loss to the fabric of the East End but also the international community of makers, artists and scholars. The Bell Foundry at Whitechapel represents our collective, cultural and intellectual inheritance and when this is sold off we must act. I hope that by casting these bells we can inspire the community of Whitechapel to speak up and save the foundry.'
The technology was provided by Peter Scully and a team of ‘apprentices’ at the B-made - The Bartlett workshops at Here East. The bells were cast using the ceramic shell casting method and a portable furnace. Three 6kg bells were cast in front of a watching audience of people wearing protective glasses and standing at a safe distance. This is not something that can safely be done in a cafe. UKHBPT and Factum Foundation intend to reinitiate serious bell making at the site on Whitechapel Road that has been the home to bell making in the East End since the 1740’s. It is a demonstration of a belief in the importance of human skills. It goes against the prevailing flow of gentrification in the area but it will provide real training and apprenticeships alongside hotel-related jobs - which can still can still happen on the vacant site at the rear of the existing foundry location, as approved by Tower Hamlets planning committee last month.
It was conducted by Factum’s 3D expert Otto Lowe and Art Jameel's senior programme manager for heritage, Fatima Mazeh, who spent two weeks in the town of AlUla in 2018 teaching a group of fifteen residents how to record cultural heritage. The local students were first taught the core concepts and technical processes behind photogrammetry and were then able to apply this knowledge to the recording of three different petroglyph sites in the vicinity of AlUla.
The purpose of the training in Factum’s workshops was for the two alumni to build on what they learnt in 2018. This course in Madrid aimed to teach them the more complex elements of photogrammetry so that they could return to AlUla and teach fellow Saudi nationals how to record cultural heritage using these advanced techniques. This will enable them to create a local team with the knowledge, skills and experience to responsibly safeguard their own cultural heritage, in line with the RCU's Cultural Manifesto and overall plans to welcome the world to AlUla in October 2020.
Last week, a team from Factum Foundation was in Jerusalem recording a Bakor monolith from Cross River state, Nigeria, that was recently donated to the Israel Museum. The limestone monolith was documented by Philip Allison in the early 1960s at a site called Akumabal. It will feature in Factum’s upcoming exhibition on the monoliths at the British Museum in October 2020.
Factum Foundation is collaborating with the Trust for African Rock Art (TARA) and the University of Calabar (UNICAL) on a project aimed at documenting, conserving and raising awareness about the Bakor monoliths, also known as ‘Ikom’ monoliths, and locally referred to as ‘akwanshi’ or ‘atal’.
An extensive survey of the monoliths was commissioned by the National Museum in Lagos and was carried out by Philip Allison, formerly of the Nigerian Forestry Department, over a period of two months in 1961 and 1962. This put the number of carved stones at 300. In the course of three periods of fieldwork, of about one month in total, Factum Foundation, TARA and UNICAL have visited all the major sites recorded by Allison and have, in addition, identified a handful of others not yet recorded.
After it has been seen at the British Museum, the exhibition will travel to the sites in Nigeria, resulting in a permanent display at Alok. This is being made possible with a generous grant from the Carène Foundation.
More news about this collaboration with Scuderie del Quirinale - Ales - Arte Lavoro e Servizi in Rome will be released soon. For now, we can say that it is part of the celebrations that will surround the 500th Anniversary of Raphael's death next year. We will keep you updated.
Factum Foundation is working on an exciting new initiative to bring some of the masterpieces of Spanish art to County Durham, UK. Led by the art collector Jonathan Ruffer, the Auckland Project is working to regenerate large sections of the town of Bishop Auckland. The fully restored Auckland Castle, for hundreds of years the seat of a powerful bishopric, was opened to the public last month, and is again home to Zurbaran’s famous series Jacob and his twelve sons, bought in 1756 by Bishop Trevor. Factum Foundation has been commissioned by the Auckland Project to create a digital resource and produce facsimiles of other major paintings and sculptural works for display within the new Spanish Gallery – the first museum in the UK to be devoted to Spanish art. Factum is a Spanish foundation and is honoured to be working on this important initiative.
Among the works being rematerialised are Berrugete's masterpiece, the sepulchre for Cardinal Tavera, and El Greco's portrait of Cardinal Tavera. Both works are from the Hospital of Cardinal Tavera in Toledo and are evidence of the close collaboration between the Fundación Casa Ducal de Medinaceli, the Auckland Project and Factum Foundation.
El Greco's tabernacle has also been recorded and a digital restoration is underway. One of El Greco's few sculptures was housed in a gilded architectural construction that was paraded through the streets of Toledo. The digital reconstruction uses the material evidence available and historical research to reconstruct the theatrical impact of this dynamic sculpture.
On October 24th, a team from Factum Foundation and Factum Arte completed the installation of the facsimiles of two lamassu statues at the University of Mosul. The installation was done in collaboration with the Spanish Ministry of Defense, the Iraqi Government and the Rijksmuseum van Oudheden.
