Friction – where fact and fiction meet through art

Friction is an action-research project working within the Museum sector to explore New Museology, where fact and fiction meet through contemporary art. The title refers to how storytelling and fiction can underpin fact, evoke curiosity and create a spark of something new – the merging of knowledge, energy and creative-thinking. It also hints at the need to gently bridge the perceived divide between conserving the past in museums whilst exploring the future through contemporary art practice.

The Miniature Museum of Museums by Tara Downs & Bart Sabel will adapt and change in response to how people interact with it in three different contexts. The artists will work with three Gloucestershire Museums and their staff to explore points of friction, both literally and metaphorically, testing cross-sector partnership working.

Our partner museums are The Gloucester Waterways Museum, The Holst Museum  and the Museum in the Park. Meantime art space in Cheltenham will also be involved, and LightsgoingOn.

Flow’s mission is to initiate, develop and deliver visual arts projects that engage with partners from diverse disciplines for unusual places. The Friction Project provides a platform for Flow to test out how artworks can be commissioned to adapt and change yet still retain a genuine relationship with the places it tours to.

Supported using public funding by the National Lottery through Arts Council England