Quarantine: Telescope at Manchester Museum

Quarantine have been a bold and distinctive force in Manchester’s cultural landscape for almost three decades. The internationally acclaimed artist collective are known for their work with everyday people, creating performances and projects that are as much about listening as they are about making theatre. This autumn they arrive at Manchester Museum with Telescope – a live exhibition that turns personal belongings into a window on memory, value and belonging.

The idea is deceptively simple. People from different generations – teenagers on the cusp of adulthood, and older participants with a lifetime of stories behind them – have been asked to lend an object to the collection. These objects form the basis of the four-day exhibition, ever-shifting and evolving, animated by performer-hosts who pose questions to the lenders, drawing out conversations in real time.

The result is a portrait of lives told through possessions – an exploration of what we hold onto, what we let go of, and why. Visitors can drop in and watch as the show unfolds, eavesdropping on exchanges that might be funny, awkward, tender or unexpectedly profound. It’s an invitation to slow down and notice the way value shifts – not just between people, but between generations. Do younger people attach meaning and significance differently from the older generation? What might those differences say about the times we live in? And what lasts when everything else changes?

For Quarantine, this kind of intergenerational dialogue is central. Their projects often explore what it means to be human now – whether through intimate conversations, shared meals, or staging people’s lived experiences in public spaces. Telescope continues this trajectory, but with a visual arts twist that feels perfectly at home in a museum setting.

Part installation, part performance, part conversation, Telescope blurs the lines between exhibition and liveness. It’s about connection across ages and perspectives, the stories embedded in ordinary objects, and the way meaning emerges through dialogue. Familiar yet surprising, it offers a timely reflection on what we value, and why.