Kiss, Split and Tell

This museum stores memories of love relationships, post their expiry dates. Open talks to founder and curator Olinka Vištica

The Museum of Broken Relationships was founded in Croatia by Olinka Vištica and Drazen Grubiši after their own failed romance. It allows contributions from individ­uals nursing broken hearts, and includes everything from the predictable teddy bears to even a gall bladder and an axe. This unique mu­seum is now touring the world, even hoping to come to India, if someone shows interest in hosting the exhibition.

Q Why did you set up the museum? Were you nursing a broken heart?

A Every idea comes out of a personal experience and this museum is no exception. It was during our break-up—our countless attempts to save, transform or ultimately overcome our relationship—that this idea came to our minds. We shared our thoughts with friends and everybody reacted enthusiastically to the concept. It is one of those really simple ideas that come to one’s mind during a simple conversation.

We are the founders of the museum, but five years ago we were just another couple splitting up. It wasn’t an easy period for us, and we were sitting in the kitchen, discussing what to do with all the memories and objects we had. We had been living together for four years and had accumulated a number of objects that reminded us of the happy and beautiful times we’d spent together. We believed that the energy of these happy moments was still inherent to these objects, although our relationship was falling apart. And then we came up with the idea: why not create a museum where these objects — testimonies of bygone loves—could find a place? The first impulse people have when splitting up is to destroy or throw away everything that reminds them of an often painful and traumatising experience, not aware that they are destroying testimonies of beautiful emotional moments they would surely like to be reminded of once the ‘wounds’ are healed. We wanted to create a shelter for some kind of collective emotional heritage. We wanted to give that chance to all those whose love relationships have unfortunately ‘expired’.

Q What is the most outrageous item you have received?

A Maybe the two most bizzare objects we received is a prosthetic leg by a war veteran who fell in love with his nurse in hospital, and a gall stone, a donation from a woman in Slovenia who claims that she had to undergo the gall stone operation due to the pain caused by her cheating husband. But it is not only the object but the intimate story that goes with the object that counts. It’s hard to pick our favourite stories; to us they are all unique and touch you on different levels. Some by their sadness, as the story of a dog collar light we got in Germany, or by the anger the relationship can provoke (story of the axe, you can find it on our website), some by their humour, as the story of an antique watch where its donator sums up his relationship in two ironic sentences: ‘This is a gift from SK. She likes antiquities, as long as the things were old and not working. This is precisely the reason why we are not together any more.’

Q And what is the most common souvenir of heartbreak?

A It’s a plushy teddy bear. We have an impressive collection in all outfits and forms: two from Croatia, three from Slovenia, one from Singapore, etcetera. It’s kind of odd that no matter from where they come, the story is more or less the same and can be summed up in ‘He left with another woman’. So you better beware if your boyfriend presents you with a plushy teddy bear for your birthday or Valentine’s Day!

Q How many shows have you organised so far?

A The exhibit has toured in 15 cities so far in Croatia, Slovenia, Serbia, Germany, Ireland, the US, Singapore, Slovakia, etcetera. We opened the show in the Philippines in mid-September.

Q Do you have a curator for the museum?

A Drazen Grubisic and me, we act like curators. We choose and think of different ways to display the items.

Q Do you reject items?

A Of course we do not accept items which could be offensive in any way (pornographic, racist, violent, etcetera). But so far, there has been no need for censorship.

Q How many items do you have on your catalogue?

A Approximately 400 items with their stories. Actually in October, we will publish a book, Museum of Broken Relationships, with a selection of 100 items collected so far.

About The Author

Sohini Chattopadhyay