Museum of Broken Relationships

A collection of locally and internationally sourced mementos of people’s intimate history, Museum of Broken Relationships features objects telling stories of Dunedin heartache.

This poignant, award-winning exhibition has travelled the world to international acclaim, from London, Paris, and Berlin to San Francisco and New York, from Shanghai, Tokyo and Singapore to Manila and Melbourne, and for the first time, is now in New Zealand, at Otago Museum.

Museum of Broken Relationships (MoBR) was conceived in 2006 by Croatian artists Olinka Vištica and Dražen Grubišić. The pair, who were a couple, separated but could not decide what to do with the debris of a life together. The things bought as a couple now symbolised loss, so they resolved to start a museum. Beginning with themselves and their network, objects were donated accompanied by an anonymous story describing the loss of lovers, friends, and family connections. The exhibition was a resounding success, and the museum was born.

Now collected from 33 countries, and shown in 56 exhibitions, the museum holds the stories of thousands of lost connections, broken ties, friendships failed, and the objects that symbolise them. In each city MoBR visits, a call for submissions starts with the simple question: Have you ever had your heart broken? Dunedin answered the call, and the exhibition is filled with an ecclectic mix of local and international stories of sadness, love, bitterness, hope, rage, and joy.

The exhibition gently holds what it means to be human, and the most important part of our experience of life: love for, and connection to, one another.

Come and be moved.

1877 Gallery.