Artists

"Love isn't an emotion or an instinct, it's an art..."

The Museum of Broken Relationships will be accompanied by a special series of new commissions from artists creating work in response to objects featured in the exhibition.

Literature

-Booker-Prize winning novelist and poet BEN OKRI (The Famished Road, Starbook, Tales of Freedom).

-Acclaimed poet, MC and DJ POET CURIOUS: known for rocking turntables and microphones both in the UK and US.

-Cosmopolitan's original Agony Aunt IRMA KURTZ, a prolific writer and broadcaster whose recent books include Dear London and The Great American Bus Ride.

-Multi prize-winning writer CLAIRE COLLISON. Claire's published writing includes a novel, short stories, poems, fridge magnets and beer mats. Her first novel, Treading Water, was a finalist in the Dundee Book Prize; other awards for her short stories include the Bridport Prize, Virago/Marie Claire, and Woman's Own.
A creative writing tutor at Birkbeck College and the Mary Ward Centre, Claire has been running the immensely popular Writing the City workshops for two years. She was recently Artist in Residence at Brockwell Park Lido.

Claire is currently drawing inspiration from the Museum of Broken Relationships collection for a series of short fiction pieces.

Get involved with Writing the Broken Relationship - a workshop with Claire Collison. Click here for details.
Thursday 18th August 2011 10am – 4pm
Sunday 28th August 2011 10am – 4pm

Music

-Zimbabwean-born vocalist and musician ESKA MTUNGWAZI, who has won international acclaim for her unique vocal style, impeccable musicianship and collaborations with the likes of Courtney Pine, Nitin Sawhney and Soweto Kinch, and for her multi-award-winning work on bassist Anthony Tidd's Quite Sane project

-Contemporary composer, field recordist and sound artist TIM BARBER, currently resident at Bristol's Pervasive Media Studio.

Dance

-Cementing the TBT's reputation as the most daring venue in the West End, the remarkably diverse programme is kicked off by the pioneering Guerilla Dance Project, whose inventive choreography of social interaction has recently graced The Place, the V&A, the National Theatre and Latitude Festival. A resident company at the Pervasive Media Studio in Bristol, the GUERILLA DANCE PROJECT will be taking their love of technology and dance step further. Expect dance and new compositions, but not as you've seen it before. Expect to get involved.

BOLLYWOOD dancing will be brought to you by MATHANGI RAMAKRISHNAN, a professional actor, singer and dancer. She hails from an Indian performing arts family, has been trained in singing and dancing since the age of three and has been performing since the age of 6. Born in Libya, lived in India, yet having been in England for the most part of her life, she has performed across various locations in India and England including Madras, Lincoln, Bristol, Bath, Oxford and London. Mathangi recently performed at the Tristan Bates Theatre during the Midnight Matinee.


Theatre

-the extraordinary Adventure and Play Agency CONEY, awarded Arts Council NPO Funding for their innovative use of digital technology and unique forms of audience engagement;

-Anglo-American story-makers FIREHOUSE CREATIVE PRODUCTIONS, whose public installations Storystation and I Confess have toured internationally.

Re-enactments of the donated stories will be brought to you by UPSTART THEATRE COMPANY. Upstart Theatre Company exists to create compelling and entertaining theatre which confronts the biggest questions facing the society we live in. Bringing together new writing, interactivity and installation-based work, Upstart's shows are quirky, challenging, and fun.

Previous work includes the innovative interactive thriller The Falling Sickness (Theatre in the Mill, 2011) and the critically acclaimed play Oh Well Never Mind Bye (Union Theatre, 2009), alongside several installations for the Tristan Bates Theatre's Midnight Matinees.
Upstart believes that theatre can help us reimagine and reinvent the world we live in.

Visual Art

-PAULINE BICKERTON and GEORGE TRIGGS will be presenting new sculptures.

Film

-Writer and Director HEATHER TAYLOR and MICHELLE TSEN, experience Producer and Editor, will be creating a short film a response to some of the London donations.
For the past year Heather and Michelle have been collecting bits of paper left behind at bus stops, airports, street corners, under bar stools. Sometimes they are receipts, grocery lists or a hastily written note to a friend. But sometimes they are lost phone numbers of relationships that could have been, a goodbye message, a love note. These abandoned scraps of paper could change a life or be something underfoot, another bit of litter in the street. Their film will show the ever changing nature of objects by using different points of view to immerse the audience in images and sound, building a wordless narrative that evokes an emotional response.

Photography

-Photographer PETER BENNET, who recently exhibited in London at Silverprint and La Galleria and was commissioned to photograph the Queen's Golden Jubilee for Buckingham Palace.

Reviews for The Museum of Broken Relationships

An Interview with one of the Museum's founders, Olinka Vistica, on BBC FIVE LIVE. Listen here.

Here's how the Museum's shaping up in London: A great article about the first donated object we received: a Grand Piano. Evening Standard.

Here's a sneak preview of what you might see, as featured in The Guardian- The Museum comes to London- in pictures

Time Out London Critic's Choice
The Telegraph's top five things to do in London this week!
Nice little article is Design Week
Recommended in Harper's Bazaar
Recommended in the Independent's Fashion Diary
Recommended in the Urban Junkie's August Culture Guide

"Original for sure. From the cute to the bizarre, the museum encourages you to open your mind and your heart." Mark Lowen, BBC

The Guardian: Display of Affection-recent newpaper article
The BBC news- Watch this fantastic short film on the BBC website