Zagreb and its residents may have been full of Christmas cheer during our weekend in the city but we spent a day wallowing in break-ups – the violent collapse of the old Yugoslavia and the more personal stories of lost love.
Image of War: The Museum of War Photography opened as recently as 2018 and focuses on the Balkan conflict that tore Communist Yugoslavia and its people apart in the early 1990s. The nearby Museum of Broken Relationships may relate less violent stories but its rooms are nevertheless full of pain and sorrow.
The Balkan Wars happened less than 30 years ago and the TV news pictures remain vivid in my memory but it’s astonishing how quickly Zagreb has recovered, at least on a physical level. If you were born in the last 20 years and didn’t know your history, you’d never have guessed that Croatia and its neighbours were locked in such a bitter civil war for so many years, that locals suffered the loss of loved ones and the terror of regular air raids. No doubt much anger simmers below the surface of everyday life but as visitors it’s not something we experienced.
Image of War exists to ensure we don’t forget those years, when people fought each other because of their nationality and religion, whipped into a hysteria by politicians with agendas full of hate. Similar to the War Photo exhibition we visited in Dubrovnik a few years back, Image of War displays photographs taken by professional war photographers from the Balkans and beyond as well as a collection taken by locals, posted beside their own stories. During our visit, the museum was focusing on stories from the Croatian war but will be rotating its offering.
It refuses to take sides, featuring suffering, brutality and celebration on all sides. It’s a solemn, contemplative space and yet at the same time a reminder that the war is over and that the successor states to Yugoslavia are making an effort to live and work together, however hard it may be.
The exhibition features some truly disturbing photos, some very difficult to look at, of soldiers celebrating the torture and death of their enemies, of civilians maimed and slaughtered by indiscriminate attacks, of towns blasted to pieces and of refugees in search of safety. One photo of a grove of trees blown apart reminded us of the barren wastelands of the First World War. Perhaps the most poignant of the pictures was taken in Zagreb after a cluster bomb attack, showing a middle-aged woman lying dead on the street, her head in a pool of blood, handbag and umbrella by her side. There is no other sign of damage or death in the photo, just an empty tram and a parked car. It’s the contrast between the mundane and such a violent death that is so shocking and moving.
Image of War is a remarkable place and despite its grim content should be on every Zagreb tourist’s agenda because it’s important not to forget.
We left to briefly explore one of Zagreb’s odder attractions. The Gric Tunnel was built during the Second World War and runs under the Upper Town. Once used as an air raid shelter, it’s now a pedestrian short cut and occasional exhibition space. During our stay it was hosting the UNICEF-sponsored Museum of Reality, which focused on the strength of the family unit even when challenged by the most trying of circumstances. It was, if nothing else, a cheerier subject matter than war.
In the old town district of Gradec lies the Museum of Broken Relationships, a subject far less profound than war but painful enough for those involved. The museum has become a huge hit and is already bursting out of its somewhat cramped quarters, this despite its odd subject matter and weird collection of everyday items. But the concept is brilliant (and cheap for the owners) – get people to donate an item that represents a broken relationship along with a brief story. Thus we get a pair of basketball boots owned by a boy who didn’t return another’s love, a smashed and burnt videotape of an ex-husband’s second marriage, post-it notes of a lover who left and never returned and a designer dress given to a woman by a man whose real life was remarkably different to the story he’d spun her.
It’s not all about disastrous love stories. Some exhibits recall family members who died, or lovers who perished in war, for example. Most if not all are utterly compelling, proved by the fact that I read pretty much every story. The items on show are just a small percentage of those donated over the years so there’s no shortage of people who want their story told. Perhaps that’s because we all want to be remembered and recognised in some way and this is the closest most of us will ever get to public recognition in a museum. The fact it tells the stories of ordinary people like us makes it so relatable.
I just hope that I never have a story to tell there…