Artist Michael Landy CBE will be joined on YouTube by Artangel Co-Director James Lingwood to discuss Break Down, Landy’s Artangel project which opened to crowds in London on 10 Feb 2001. Two decades on, this talk celebrates the twentieth anniversary of the project whilst reconvening the artist with its commissioner for an opportunity to reflect on the project’s many themes.

How to Watch

A link to watch the event on YouTube will be emailed to you and also available on the Eventbrite event page once you've registered.

There will be a live audience Q&A towards the end of the conversation when your questions shared on the YouTube event or on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram via the hashtag #20YearsSinceBreakDown will be posed to the artist.

Live closed captions will be provided by StageText.

More About Break Down

“I see this as the ultimate consumer choice. Once Break Down has finished, a more personal 'break down' will commence, life without my self-defining belongings…

One way or other I'm trying to get rid of myself, so it's kind of the ultimate way without actually dispensing of me.” – Michael Landy

To prepare for Break Down, Michael Landy made an inventory of everything he owned: every book and record, every article of clothing, every photo and work of art, and his red Saab car. Cataloguing all his possessions took a year to complete. The final list comprised 7,227 items.

A specially constructed facility modelled on a material reclamation factory was installed in an empty department store on Oxford Street, London. Landy then set about systematically destroying all his possessions with the help of a team of operatives and a dedicated car mechanic.

Classified into ten categories – Artworks, Clothing, Equipment, Furniture, Kitchen, Leisure, Motor Vehicle, Perishables, Reading Material and Studio Material – the stuff of Landy's life circulated on a system of roller conveyors moving like a large Scalextric track around the store. Each individual possession was then taken apart, broken down, pulped and granulated. After two weeks every single thing that Landy had once owned no longer existed. The artist was now without any prior possessions.

Find out more about Landy’s project with Artangel: https://www.artangel.org.uk/project/break-down/