Friday 13 December 2013

A museum of all. The museum of broken relationships

If you ever visit Zagreb, in Croatia, you shall not lose the chance to visit a very peculiar museum: The museum of broken relationships. http://brokenships.com/

Entrance poster
Some old shoes, a coat, a love letter, a special CD, a soft stuffed heart... are some of the objects than can be found and, apparently, have no connexion between them, almost like a 21st Century cabinet of curiosities, more organized and spaced, with white walls and modern supports. Then, with the help of a paper guide, you get to find out of the different sentimental conflicts of each individual person that has left an object there because, in fact, that's a museum which could totally be communal. Real stories from people all around the world, telling us about the pain they suffered when their lover dump them, when they lost love in a war, or the dreadful rage for that person who never treated them as they deserved.


Inside view of the museum

All of it are true stories, lived and explained in first-person narrative for its own protagonists; anyone can leave an object and be able to feel that a part of that person, and a part of that old relationship, lasts in this space.
Inside view of the museum


Broken love letter

More or less poetical, with more discursive coherence or less of it, nastier or not at all, everyone of the donors is free to define their objects in their own way and that definition will not be changed.

We can find, for example, a love letter that was never sent because the lover dumped that person, with an e-mail, before the letter could be sent, and the broken-hearted decided to stick the letter to a glass and breaking it, as a kind of completion ritual.

The initiative was supposed to be the creation of an itinerary exposition that would run around the world before disappear, as so many do. But the need and great success of the idea turned it into a permanent exhibition, which placement was finally decided to be in the old town of the Croatian capital.




View of the city from the Old Town

The development of the project was a participation of two Croatian artists: Olinka Vištica, film producer, and sculptor Dražen Grubisic who, when they broke their relationship, decided to create, half jokingly, a museum to place the personal objects that reminded them of their life together. In 2006, with help from other friends, that project came true and was shown at the 41st Zagreb Salon. It was a huge success, and from Zagreb it went to other Balkan countries, and also Argentina, Germany, Singapore, Indonesia, and many other countries until 2010 with a collection almost as twice as large thanks to the donations that the visitors made in each expo. That same year, the two artists decided they wanted it to be a real museum, permanent, and the rent the space where it is now, this being the first private museum in Croatia. Their originality was awarded in 2011 with the Kenneth Hudson Award.

The museum paper guide
That experience show us that feelings go beyond borders, highlighting its universality: the difficulty of saying goodbye, rage or failed love are the main topics of the museum that can't leave you indifferent and, in fact, it reflects the cultural, political and social tradition of each of the persons who took part on it, turning in public what in theory is meant to be private, creating a space where the line between privacy and the public becomes almost non-existent. You start the guide and you finish it, you won't skip a line because, deep inside, we all like to gossip and look into other people's life.



From all around the world; from Belgrade to Canada and from Indonesia to Mexico, they are ephemeral witnesses of perennial concepts, as are the human feelings, both universal and individual at the same time.

Guiomar Sánchez

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