In a world where exploding rockets and imploding submarines have been touted as signs of innovation, a touring museum exhibition that explores the relationship between failure and progress is now set to reach the UK.
The Museum of Failure Institute, or MOX, has a laboratory headquarters in Malaga, Spain, and provides pop-up expos and talks to venues around the world, exploring products and inventions from the edible to the medical, and from entertainment to transportation, that all went wrong. A face mask that delivered electric shocks to rejuvenate the skin, purple ketchup, and a wearable “friend” that sent messages to people’s phones but was widely panned as a surveillance device are among the inventions the museum presents.
Artificial intelligence features heavily, including the Rabbit R1, a gadget that promised to replace smartphones but couldn’t even set a timer or call a cab, and a talking children’s toy that was pulled from shelves when it started giving out advice on sex and weapons.
Through laughter, curiosity, and sometimes horror stories, the museum aims to promote a growth mindset, destigmatise failure and reposition mishaps as an essential part of the innovation process. “Everything that we call progress, tech, medical, ideological, social… it is all a result of a long process of trial and error. We as a society have huge problems to solve, and we need to reevaluate our relationship with failure to take the meaningful risks that need to be taken to explore and experiment with new ways of doing things,” founder Dr Samuel West told The Independent.
An ongoing exhibition called Flops! Paris is on at the French capital’s Musée des Arts et Métiers since 14 December 2025 and lasts until 17 May 2026. A roadshow has taken the Museum of Failure to Budapest, Los Angeles, and Shanghai, and, according to a recent MOX Instagram post, London is next, and Edinburgh could follow, though no dates or locations have yet been confirmed—a failure of communication perhaps?
“Brits totally get the museum’s message. I don’t need to explain it, Brits get it,” West said. “They understand failure, and most can appreciate it and have a laugh at the same time.” Speaking to the Guardian, he contrasted British pragmatism over such massive self-owns as Brexit with eternal American optimism. Americans “just didn’t get it when I tried to tell them that sometimes… there’s no happy ending’, West said, explaining that Brits have a “dark awareness that things can just go horribly wrong.”
The museum is set to remain in Paris until May 16, with no official confirmation yet on when or where it will travel to the UK. However, a recent Instagram post indicated that the exhibition is “looking forward to arriving in the UK later this year,” suggesting it is likely to cross the Channel before the end of 2026.
