The Cabildo of Lanzarote installed the wind toy Fobos this Tuesday morning, the historic work by César Manrique that returned to the Tahíche roundabout after the maintenance work was completed.
The president, Oswaldo Betancort, and the vice president and head of Public Works, Jacobo Medina, visited the installation work at the Tahíche roundabout on Tuesday morning, where technicians and installers from the Cabildo and firefighters from the Lanzarote Security and Emergency Consortium worked.
The president of the Cabildo, Oswaldo Betancort, stressed that today's act "responds not only to the tribute that we owe as an institution to this artist, but also to the projection of the Cabildo towards the future." "After this installation, we are already working on the remodeling of the wind toy in honor of Pepín Ramírez," he said.
"The island he dreamed of is the sketch on which we must work now and this has been the intention that we have expressed from day one here. And of course, we are translating it into reality with projects focused on people and working on a change of model based on sustainability in all possible areas," added Betancort.
The vice president, Jacobo Medina, said that this Tuesday has been "a historic and important day for the citizens of Lanzarote." "It has taken longer than expected to see 'Fobos' again in this roundabout, but thanks to the work of the workers of the Mobile Park, we have been able to fulfill the promise of installing it before the end of the year," he added.
The president of the César Manrique Foundation, José Juan Ramírez, was also present at the installation ceremony, who said that the recovery of 'Fobos' "is great news for the island, the Foundation, and the memory of César Manrique."
Maintenance work on "Fobos"
The Cabildo of Lanzarote proceeded to dismantle and transfer 'Fobos' to the facilities of the Mobile Park of the Cabildo on October 18, 2022, with the aim of carrying out a thorough evaluation of the work.
The lack of human resources slowed down the work until September 2023, when the Cabildo of Lanzarote incorporated two welders from the mechanical workshop of the Mobile Park into the team, with whom it was possible to carry out the maintenance work.
The work carried out was meticulous and practically artisanal, with the regrowth of the protection weirs of each of the 16 anchor plates of the mobile elements, as well as the welded reinforcement with structural solid bar of the tubes of all the spheres in each of the areas of union with the wind collecting elements (half moons, fish...) and in the areas of union with the beginning and end cartouches of the bars that make up the 3 outer spheres.
Drilling was also carried out in the fastening rings of each of the 5 modules, with an aerating and draining function of the condensation that was occurring between the main axis and the mounting axes of each module.
The workers of the Mobile Park also carried out the cleaning and replacement of the grease arranged in the bearing boxes with a grease with greater resistance to corrosion, lower viscosity that facilitates movement from the rest position and with better characteristics for slow movement.
Finally, the polishing and painting with protective exterior primer of the internal bushings that support the 9 tapered bearings and the 9 ball bearings was carried out, in addition to the general cleaning of the main shaft and greasing, as well as the semi-embedded bolts in the foundation of the roundabout and that anchor the plates of the base of the shaft.