Factum Arte has collaborated for the first time with Danish-Palestinian artist Larissa Sansour on a monumental sculpture that forms part of 'Heirloom', a reflection on the themes of memory, history and identity. Larissa Sansour is representing Denmark at the 58th International Biennale di Venezia.

Born in East Jerusalem, Sansour studied Fine Art in Copenhagen, London, and New York before embarking on a prolific interdisciplinary career that has incorporated film, photography, sculpture, and installations. Previously featured in the biennials of Istanbul, Busan and Liverpool, Sansour has been exhibited at various internationally recognised institutions such as the Tate Modern, London; Centre Pompidou, Paris; LOOP, Seoul; Barbican, London; Al Hoash, Jerusalem; Reina Sofia Museum, Madrid; Centre for Photography, Sydney; Townhouse, Cairo; Maraya Arts Centre, Sharjah, UAE, and the Louisiana Museum of Contemporary Art. She currently lives and works in London.

The vast spherical structure is made from glass-fibre-reinforced epoxy resin. Black pigment was added to this mix in order to achieve a deep black tone; this was the first step in trying to create a light-absorbent matt black from commercially available materials which could be used on this scale. The cast resin surface had to be totally smooth (but not polished) and perfectly formed. While the multiple layers that form the blackness do not reach the qualities of the infamous Vantablack, the Monument for Lost Time is at a scale where for practical reasons, maximally light-absorbent materials cannot be used.

The resulting ‘mysterious’ sphere is optically dynamic - sometimes a sphere, sometimes flat, and sometimes a void - all without any visible human intervention, in line with the artist’s intention.

Held into place by an intricate internal aluminium structure, designed and constructed by Factum Arte, both this and the numerous sections of the sphere had to be taken apart upon completion to be transported to Venice. One of Factum's architect devised specially built transport cages and worked with Sansour to operate within a budget for maximum efficiency. This was seen with the cages being specially adjusted to a diameter of 4.8 m in order to fit the in-house storage space in Venice. The installation of the sculpture was also carried out by Factum Arte, with this proving a challenging process owing to its monumental size in comparison to its small intended space, with only a 1 m gap left around the sphere. As a result, the complex installation process was simulated in advance at Factum in Madrid, with four team members travelling to Venice to execute this.

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The Factum Arte team consisted of: Salomé Prada Pottecher, Ángel Jorquera Luna, Iván Martín Allende, Miguel Hernando Sánchez, Francisco Javier Barreno Pérez, Francesco Cigognetti, Manuel Campo Trueba, Emily Kraus, Francisco Javier Regalado, María del Carmen Pascual Sánchez, Ania Martín Fernández.