Weird is the new cool when it comes to museum

28.Mar.2016

Museum for Broken Relationships:

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The Museum of Broken Relationships

It was when I was reading about Croatia that I came across this Museum for Broken Relationships in Zagreb dedicated to failed love relationships. What started as a travelling collection of donated items not only found its place in Zagreb, but also bagged the Kenneth Hudson Award for Europe’s most innovative museum in 2011. They showcase interesting aspects of a broken relationship – it could be a letter from your ex lover, or an item that was left behind, with a brief description. It was interesting to learn that the museum was set up by two individuals – Olinka Vištica, a film producer and Dražen Grubišić, a sculptor after their four year relationship came to end. It began as a joke between them and took form when Dražen approached Olinka quite seriously after three years.

The Pigment Library

download_yf3qys-1- Pigments collected over the year stored in the library

Recently, I came across something called The Pigment Library at Harvard. This interesting Library is a part of the Harvard Art Museums’ Straus Center for Conservation and Technical Studies. It houses raw materials that were used to extract dye before synthetic pigments were made available. Some of the interesting materials are a rare lapis lazuli stone extracted from the quarries in Afghanistan, a ball of ‘Indian Yellow’ that is produced from the urine of cows that were fed mango leave only, secretions of a ocean-dwelling snail, dried bodies of tiny insects are some of the weird raw materials that is stored in this library. These two museums piqued my interest enough to learn more about weird museums and I hit the mother lode, so to speak!!

International Spy Museum

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Merchandise stop at the Spy Museum!

Did you know that there is a museum dedicated to espionage? It is called International Spy Museum and is Washington DC. One can actually learn the tricks of the trade (both real and fictitious) through their interactive exhibits. I wonder how it would feel to live the life of a spy like James Bond!

Chamberpots and Trash

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At the Museum of Toilets, Delhi

The next one that tickled my funny bone is the Sulabh International Museum of Toilets (Yup, you read it right). This particular museum is actually nearer than you might think. Located in New Delhi, the museum records the evolution of toilet and the different of toilets around the world. I always wondered what led to the invention of chamber pots! The next one I came across is quite smelly actually. The Garbage Museum houses a Trash-o-saurus, which is made of waste that is generated by an average individual in a year. You can imagine the size, I suppose! Other than this, the visitors get to see the other side of Connecticut’s garbage by walking through a huge compost pile and following the recycling process.

Museum of Bad Art (no kidding!)

The last one I was fascinated with is the Museum of Bad Art. That’s right, while most of us have seen extraordinary art protected by top notch security in Museums like the Louvre, there is this museum that houses bad art! Apparently, one grows more confident about their own skills with art when they see the exhibits here…

BadArtBrochure01_br57l0-1- A brochure of the Bad Art Museum

There is more where this came from and I must say if we were to visit these countries, a drop by would be quite entertaining!