Museum of Broken Relationships (Zagreb, Croatia)

I´ve heard about this museum and I decided to give it a go. When you enter, after paying your ticket, you read this:

The Museum of Broken Relationships grew from a travelling exhibition revolving around the concept of failed relationships and their ruins. Unlike ‘destructive’ self-help instructions for recovery from grief and loss, the Museum offers the chance to overcome an emotional collapse through creation: by contributing to the Museum’s collection.

Whatever the motivation for donating personal belongings – be it sheer exhibitionism, therapeutic relief, or simple curiosity – people embraced the idea of exhibiting their emotional legacy as a sort of a ritual, a solemn ceremony. Our societies acknowledge marriages, funerals, and even graduation farewells, but deny us any formal recognition of the demise of a relationship, despite its strong emotional effect. In the words of Roland Barthes in A Lover´s discourse: “Every passion, ultimately, has its spectator... (there is) no amorous oblation without a final theatre.”

Conceptualized in Croatia in 2006, the Museum has since toured internationally, creating an ever evolving, community built collection that challenges our ideas about heritage. Although coloured by personal experience, local culture and history, the exhibits presented here form universal patterns that bring comfort to all those who uncover them. Hopefully, they can also inspire our personal search for deeper insights and strengthen our belief in something more meaningful than random suffering.

Already... Wow! Right? But this is just the beginning. People look a bit puzzled, nervous, some giggle, some start to get a bit serious, some sweat a lot (especially on a hot summer day, hehe). You start walking around, visiting the different areas of the Museum.

From the exhibition, I especially liked a few items. For example, this one: 

 Mind the fact that I´m Capricorn... The irony is quite humorous, but is definitely black humour. 

One of the sections of the exhibition simply reads:  

For very special reasons, this piece was really touching for me.

The Japanese art of folding paper into decorative shapes and figures.

“One thousand Origami Cranes” is a sad story about a Japanese woman who gave birth to two babies, the first one kept alive but the second died in her womb two months before the due date. 
Folding one crane after another helped her to believe “that the baby was happily living in heaven”. 

The testimony ends like this: “May all the children who could not be born rest in peace and be forever happy in heaven”. Your stomach clench up in knots.  

Before and after: Croatia is an EU member country since 1 July 2013

Ćirilometodska ul. 2, 10000, Zagreb, Croatia

Reading (English and Croatian mostly), taking in. As soon as you start moving, it becomes reading-taking in-breathing. It starts to feel a bit suffocating. Maybe the heat, maybe your past, your present, your future... You think of items you may still have belonging to an ex... Or you think of creating your own Museum of Broken Relationships... Or you think this experience could be the beginning of SOMETHING new... And suddenly you feel... You just feel... You need water as you can´t really swallow nor breathe... You realize that you are not alone, that so many people suffer or have suffered while you were doing the same. And again: we are all human beings, body and soul.

Discover graffiti and street art in Zagreb.

Bear in mind: Museum of Broken Relationships is a global crowd- sourced project with permanent museum outposts in Zagreb and Los Angeles. Go to their website: brokenships.com

Corina Moscovich