from BMoCA…

MUSEUM OF BROKEN RELATIONSHIPS

February 14 – May 26, 2013 Please join us for the opening reception on February 14, 2013 –  Valentine’s Day.

In a throwaway consumer society, where everything is disposable, upgradable, and replaceable, items that remind us of past relationships rank particularly low on our personal value scale. The common response or advice for dealing with a breakup is to dispose of everything that reminds us of the other person and to get over him or her as quickly as possible, with the fact that the relationship did not last taken as self-evidence that this was not “the right one.” But as more and more people experience several significant relationships during their lifetime, with second and third marriages becoming increasingly common, we begin to acknowledge that our expectations and needs change as much as we do as we live longer, more educated, and self-determined lives. Simultaneously, the notion that the person we spent part of our life with was just “the wrong one” and should be erased from our memory becomes less plausible.

So what to do with the formerly cherished objects that carried so much personal meaning and emotions when the relationship is over?