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Museum of broken relationships - from the collapse to the celebration

2014-03-11

Museum of broken relationships - from the collapse to the celebration

When a relationship ends, what remains most often is a welter of conflicting emotions and a pile of items that painfully remind us of what is gone: appliances both together to furnish our house, gifts for all kinds of occasions, images, letters, etc. You can tear it all and throw away in anger or to give to the Museum of Broken Relationships.
This second solution seems to be a lot more meaningful. For two founders, Olinka Vištica and Dražen Grubašić, the impulse to create the museum was a reflection on failed relationships and their ruins. In place of anger, self-destruction and sorrow they propose self-reflection and celebration, and as a result liberation.
Although the reasons for which donors decide to increase the museum's collection are diverse (from pure exhibitionism, the curiosity to the search for purification), the idea of making the separation a kind of ritual ceremony seems the most appealing. We are somewhat socially committed to the celebrations. We celebrate forming of a new relationship by marriage ceremony or death by attending the funeral, we celebrate the completion of the various stages of education but we do not have the rituals of separation, despite the fact that usually it entails a deep emotional impact.
Museum of Broken Relationships in Zagreb, which was visited so far by 40 thousand people willing to delve into the love stories and tales of others break ups. The first object of the collection was a photo of a plush rabbit in the desert near Tehran. Mascot was traveling with Olinka and Drazen around the world, when they split the only thing left was just a picture. In the museum you can also see an ax, used to destroy all belongings of an unfaithful lover, glass horse a witness of happy moments of the past relationship or a mobile phone with a short explanation: "He gave me his cell phone so I couldn't call him any more."