Factum Arte

Based in Madrid and Milano, Factum Arte consists of a team of artists, technicians and conservators dedicated to digital mediation - both in the production of works for contemporary artists and in the production of facsimiles as part of a coherent approach to preservation and dissemination. Bespoke equipment has been designed and software has been written to obtain optimum results in both recording and outputting digital information. Factum Arte’s non-contact methodologies are having a growing impact on the world of conservation and are defining the role facsimiles play in in the protection of their cultural heritage. Carrying out a number of large scale projects, Factum Arte has gained a reputation for the uncompromising nature of its work and obsessive commitment to pushing the boundries that usually separate technology and craft skills. The successful innovations carried out or commissioned include: the development of the 3D Lucida Scanner (designed by Manuel Franquelo) and the writing of a 3D retouching software for use in the tombs in the Valley of the Kings in Egypt, the development of a flatbed scanning system to record colour used on Veronese’s Wedding at Cana, a flatbed digital printer that can repeatedly overprint in perfect registration, a 3D printer that prints in cement from STL files and the development of a system to record fragile manuscripts and books when they are open at an angle of les than 90 degrees (used in the Biblioteca Nacional Madrid) to record El Beato de Liebana). The Digital information that is recorded has been used for documentation, monitoring and the production of 2D and 3D facsimiles which retain the surface complexity and characteristics of the original. The role of facsimiles and issues of objectivity are central to the work. The aim of most projects carried out in Factum Arte’s workshops is to demonstrate how new technologies can assume a central role in the preventative conservation of heritage sites and can change attitudes towards the use of digital data (both virtual and physical) in the management and protection of cultural heritage. The recent installation of an exact facsimile of the burial chamber of Tutnkhamun into a new building at the entrance ot the Valley of the Kings is a good example of this approach in practice. Over the past few years Factum Arte has worked with The Musée du Louvre, The British Museum, The Pergamon Museum, Museo del Prado, Biblioteca Nacional Madrid, the Fondazione Giorgio Cini, the Supreme Council of Antiquities in Egypt and many other museums, institutions and private individuals

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