Author: Hannah Wind Date: Monday, 23 September 2024
Location: Germany
Source: Private Collection.
SUMMARY
Most of us go through breakups at some point, and nearly everyone knows how it is to lose something or someone close to our hearts. The Museum of Broken Relationships in Zagreb narrates stories of love and loss, happiness and grief. There is barely any other place I have been to where tears and smiles are so close to each other. While many items displayed in the museum are connected to different issues, there are also many objects illustrating how war and terror have led to broken relationships. This article aims to introduce the museum, thereby particularly highlighting the stories of those who have experienced loss due to war and terror.
BACKGROUND
This summer, I travelled through Eastern Europe with my now ex-boyfriend. One of the highlights of our trip was the ‘Museum of Broken Relationships’ in Zagreb, Croatia. Now that I am going through a breakup myself, I am reminiscing about what we saw in that museum and considering whether I should send one of our memories to Zagreb as well to pay tribute to our loving relationship. Just like me, many others have sent their personal memories about their relationships to the museum. May that be their relationship with a partner, a parent, a child, a hobby, food, clothes, addictions, nature, or life in general. However, unlike my story, many of their breakups did not happen in peace and with respect but ended suddenly, tragically, or with a lot of hatred.
What is the Museum of Broken Relationships?
The Museum of Broken Relationships is permanently located in the upper part of the old town of Zagreb, Croatia. According to staff working there, approximately 80 items are on display at once, and the exhibition changes every six years. On top of the items that make it into the museum, there are non-permanent exhibitions all around the world and many stories can also be read on the museum’s website.
When I went there this summer, a few items particularly struck me. Of course, it is interesting to see how some people kept some skin off their partner to have the possibility to clone them later or how others knit a sweater per the ‘precise wishes’ of their indecisive ex-partner, leaving them with five different collars and one sleeve that is much longer than the other. Yet, the most touching stories are those of grief, those stories and items that carry on the story of someone who has left.
Wedding Dress
Photo: Private Collection.
One of these items is this wedding dress. It belonged to a beloved fiancée who was due to marry only two weeks after her partner was tragically killed in a terrorist attack. She says, “My wedding dress is the best representation of the day I want to remember him by.” – Essentially, this woman never got to marry the love of her life. Still, by sending in this dress, she gave her relationship and her soon-to-be husband a meaning that they would not have gotten had this dress not been put on display and been looked at and admired by so many visitors.
A Below-Knee Prosthesis
On the other hand, some items in the museum depict how war can bring people together. Another person had sent in his below-knee prosthesis, made from materials that the owner, a war invalid, had gotten from a social worker in the hospital. Although the relationship later failed, the prosthesis carried on the story and found its way to the museum, where it reminds thousands of visitors every year of the former couple’s story and the life of a war invalid.
Letters from Afghanistan
Finally, war can also be destructive in the sense that it does not take lives but destroys families. A last item that really impressed me were letters and bride’s bouquets from Afghanistan, sent in by a woman who now resides in Denmark together with her children. The husband and father of the family
had never returned home after the war or, as the woman writes, ‘left the family.’
Lessons Learnt
The above stories are all very different, yet they have a common component: loss. They are only three out of millions of stories depicting how war and terror can take whatever is precious to us in the split of a second. Yet, just seeing these three items in the museum can teach every one of us – even those who have not lost someone or something to war and terror – an important lesson to everyone: that everything ends eventually and that nothing in life can be taken for granted.
In my opinion, while it triggers sadness and empathy, there is a lot of beauty in the Museum of Broken Relationships because it gives a longer life to things that have long ended. It is a place to laugh and be happy because we are reminded that not every relationship is beneficial and good for oneself. We learn to appreciate what we have while mourning those interpersonal and intra-personal relationships that have been taken from us or others around us. It is for that reason that should you ever go to Zagreb, I strongly recommend visiting the Museum of Broken Relationships and delving into this world of mixed feelings and strong emotions yourself.
REFERENCES
The Museum of Broken Relationships <https://brokenships.com> accessed 22 September 2024.
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