Craftsmenship from the City of Aarau in New York

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This Story

My sister told me about this, written in a local newspaper, it is taking me back to my Childhood.

I grew up in this City, Aarau, the capital of the Canton of Aargau, named after the river that flows through it, the Aare river. During my school days, I walked by this factory 4x a day, in the morning to school, walking back home for lunch, and then in the afternoon back to school, and then do it all over again late afternoon to go home.

As I walked by the factory I was always curious about what was going on behind those big wooden doors, all the banging and noises that came out of there; as the huge glass windows were always open, because of the heat and steam pouring the liquid Bronze, I sometimes climbed up on to the wall trying to peek inside, I always saw men, wearing heavy leather aprons, rushing around back and forth inside, but never really saw a bell being poured. Now, reading this article, I am saying to myself “Why didn’t I ever ask to go inside to have a look?”

On some days I watched Horse Carriages unloading Horsemanure into the walled-in backyard, I knew that they were using the manure to insulate the bell molds, before pouring the Bronze, nowadays they use Sand instead. I do remember the smell in the neighborhood walking by in the morning! So, when I saw this story it brought back nice memories from my childhood; and that factory is still running today!

The Makings of a Piece of Art

For weeks, artist Niclas Castello melted a huge amount of gold into a cube at the Rüetschi Bell foundry in Aarau, Canton Aargau. The age-old Aarau company is now making international headlines.

Original in German by Nadja Rohner and Daniel Vizentini, Translated to English and elaborated by Ulrich Koepf

On the second morning of February this year, it simply stood in Central Park in New York: a cube of gold, guarded by a security team, of course. It is “The Castell Cube,” a new project by German-born artist Niclas Castello, who is also launching a cryptocurrency, thus bridging the gap between an ancient and a brand-new payment medium. The work of art made international headlines – and so did the Aarau bell foundry Rüetschi. In order to transform 186 kilograms of pure 24-carat gold into the shape of a cube, the artist had to rely on the know-how of the oldest foundry in Switzerland (and thus one of the oldest companies in the world).

Niclas Castello and his Spouse

In fact, the Aarau company is probably the only one that was able to realize this art project, as Edona Berisha from H.Rüetschi AG says when asked. “We were convinced that our many years of experience would enable us to realize for Niclas Castello what many art foundries would have rejected.” The artist himself spent several weeks in the foundry workshop on Rain in Aarau. A team of filmmakers accompanied the complex production process.

Never before had so much gold been cast at once

For the production, a test casting was made in advance 1:1 with suitable material, Edona Berisha explains. the “Castello Cube” was cast in two parts in a natural sand process and welded together. “the solidification process required the purchase of a new furnace for the project, as the use of the pure material rather than an alloy composite presented a unique challenge,” share the artist and the foundry. “The surfaces and bends required perfection. For the final casting in collaboration with a goldsmith, the mold had to withstand temperatures of up to 1100°C. A venture into the unknown, a proverbial melting pot between art and commerce, a cube, was born.”

This cube measures 50x50x50 cm weighs 186 kilograms and was cast from 24 carats of pure gold. “That was also the difficulty of it all. Never before has such an enormous amount of gold been cast in a single, pure object,” says Edona Berisha. Niclas Castello adds, “Its completion took more than 4500 hours, the digging even more.” Although not for sale, the artwork is worth about 11.7 million US dollars, equivalent to about 10.8 million Swiss francs. It was on display in Central Park for only one day; what will happen to it after that is not yet known.