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Arts & Entertainment

Finally, A Museum Of Broken Relationships That's Not In A Box In Your Closet


By

Jen Chung

Published Feb 13, 2012

Modified Feb 13, 2012


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"Divorce Day Mad Dwarf" from the Museum of Broken Relationships

 


By

Jen Chung

Published Feb 13, 2012

Modified Feb 13, 2012


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While New York City has a Museum of Sex, Croatia has a Museum of Broken Relationships. The museum displays donated artifacts with the donors' descriptions of the relationships. For instance, here's the story behind this Slovenian "Divorce Day Mad Dwarf":

The divorce day garden dwarf. He arrived in a new car. Arrogant, shallow and heartless. The dwarf was closing the gate that he had destroyed himself some time ago. At that moment it flew over to the windscreen of the new car, rebounded and landed on the asphalt surface. It was a long loop, drawing an arc of time - and this short long arc defined the end of love.

You can see other objects, like "An Ex Axe," here.

According to the AP, on Valentine's Day, the two-year-old museum's visits double. Co-founder Drazen Grubisic explained, "The objects that are here represent all the stages of a breakup ... and how people go through love," and its description page quotes Roland Barthes' in A Lover's Discourse: "Every passion, ultimately, has its spectator... (there is) no amorous oblation without a final theater."

Tagged

broken hearts

museum of broken relationships

valentine's day


Jen Chung

Jen Chung is a former WNYC and Gothamist editor.

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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations


Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations


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