When a relationship has come to an end, what do you do with the detritus? Objects which haven’t a place in the future and are too full of painful reminders to keep, yet still too emotionally significant to take to Oxfam. Stuff them in the back of a cupboard? And reawaken past pain when you find them there six months later?
Failing relationships are the staple of Agony Aunt columns, psychotherapists, lawyers and Citizens Advice. On-line services like Grief Kind, self-help groups and friends can help. But even if your negotiations on divvying up the pension and agreeing who keeps the fridge and the dog have been civil, you are left with an emotional hang-over. And the problem of what to do with the souvenirs.
Zagreb’s Museum of Broken Relationships has an answer. They take in the emotional jetsam and display it with the story, anonymously, in the donor’s own words, in English and Croatian.
Photo: Mare Milin
