It is with great pleasure that, as of September 2024, Factum Foundation London announces the acquisition of the Cylinders Estate in Elterwater.
Littoral Trust contacted the Factum Foundation for Digital Technology in Preservation in 2023 to request assistance in taking the Merz Barn and Cylinders Estate forward for a new generation.
Factum Foundation is a not-for-profit founded by Adam Lowe in Madrid, in 2009. It works alongside its sister company Factum Arte, a multidisciplinary workshop dedicated to digital mediation, producing works for contemporary artists as well as facsimiles for preservation purposes. Factum Foundation demonstrates the importance of documenting, monitoring, studying, re-creating and disseminating the world’s cultural heritage through the rigorous development of high-resolution recording and re-materialisation techniques. They have initiated and been part of numerous exhibitions, studies, conservation training programmes, and unprecedented joint projects involving major artworks and monuments from around the world.
The transfer of the Cylinders Estate to Factum Foundation represents a significant step towards preserving and promoting Kurt Schwitters’ legacy. Working with other local charities and universities, Factum Foundation will transform the site into a dynamic cultural hub to support the meaningful learning and interaction with Schwitters’ Merz art.
In addition to the barn, the estate also includes a cluster of buildings that will be restored as a centre for artists and scholars passionate about Schwitters and his legacy. Factum Foundation aims to establish an annual residency programme for refugee and displaced artists, providing the kind of sanctuary that Schwitters found on the estate in the years before his death in 1948.
Part of the Merz Barn’s wall was relocated for preservation to Hatton Gallery in Newcastle in 1966 by the artist Richard Hamilton working with Fred Brooks and others. Using its experience recording and replicating artworks and cultural heritage sites, Factum Foundation proposes the reunification of Schwitters’ final installation by creating a facsimile of the missing wall section.
As a Charitable Incorporated Organisation, Factum Foundation London is actively seeking a new model for this unique rural site. It needs local support from those who care about the Lake District and artists of singularity and originality. Success will be measured by the ability to convey the importance of the legacy Schwitters left as a refugee who contributed to a fundamental change to cultural life in England.
Factum Foundation seeks to develop a new approach to heritage management and will need support from philanthropic individuals, institutions, government agencies and artists. Littoral Trust benefited from the generosity of artists including Damian Hirst, Anthony Gormley and the Boyle Family. Many more will now be needed to make this vision of the site a reality. Since its creation in 2009, Factum Foundation’s core mission has been to preserve the past, empower the present, and inspire the future, preserving cultural heritage for future generations.
Through careful conservation and thoughtful programming, the Merz Barn is poised to become a vibrant centre of artistic activity and cultural exchange, honouring Schwitters’ innovative spirit and enduring influence on contemporary art. Working with other local charities, including Grizedale Arts, Factum Foundation aims to transform the site into a place of tranquillity, refuge, reflection and learning in celebration of a great artist whose cultural influence is growing and is more relevant than ever.
Factum Foundation’s work at Cylinders will be judged on the impact it makes locally, the transformation of the garden, the revival of interest in Kurt Schwitters unique creativity and on the depth of experience of those who visit.
