Love leftovers wanted
2006-04-24 14:04
Zagreb - If you have ever wondered what
to do with the painful reminders of a broken love affair the
answer is here now: Donate them to a museum in Croatia.
Zagreb's new Museum of Broken Relationships already houses
love letters, engagement rings, massage oils, a scooter, even
the empty liquor bottles left behind after romance fails and it
wants you to send it more of love's detritus.
"You recently broke up and have this irresistible urge to
erase all memory of it?" asks the museum on its website
(www.brokenships.com). "This museum allows you to get rid of
things that trigger bad memories."
The museum boasts some fairly forlorn items, including the
artificial leg of a demobilised war veteran who fell in love
with his therapist.
"The prosthesis lasted longer than our love. Better
material," says a note attached to the prosthetic limb.
Each piece in the exhibit is accompanied by a note from the
donor, explaining its origin and significance. Many notes ooze
nostalgia or bitterness, betraying the hurt lingering after the
end of an affair. Others are simply ironic.
The founders of the museum, Olinka Vistica and Drazen
Grubisic, used to be a couple.
"We split up and started to talk," Vistica said "What about
all the objects and all the remains of our relationship."
Memories of love
That's when they started to develop the idea of a museum
where they could rid themselves of the painful detritus left
over from their relationship but preserve them from oblivion.
Their friends then combed their collections of love
memorabilia and made the first contributions. The idea quickly
spread by e-mail and word of mouth and took root.
"We got a really good response from lots of people and we
got so many different things we never thought of, like the Vespa
(scooter) or the artificial leg," said Grubisic.
Their museum is housed in a big metal container outside a
"real" art museum in downtown Zagreb. The founders hope the city
will help them turn the exhibit into a permanent collection
accepting contributions from around the world.
In one corner is a "confessional", a box with a computer and
a microphone behind a curtain where visitors can record how they
feel about their lost love.
The founders believe that shedding the objects associated
with a failed love affair is better therapy than destroying
them, as some self-help books preach.
They also offer advice on their website to donors who may be
tempted to check the website for the items they have abandoned.
"If the memories are still too painful, you can deny
yourself online access to your memory trigger for three or six
months or however long your recovery lasts".