Paper short abstract:

A narrative reframing of objects may have a therapeutic function, and simultaneously endow them with new forms of agency. This study on museum-donated artifacts, suggests that objects can help both in expressing feelings for which we might lack words and in aligning the personal and the communal.

Paper long abstract:

In an age of global consumerism, purchasing objects becomes part of an identity project (Belk 1988). In addition, people use commodities to create cohesive self-narratives (Schau 2018). However, our belongings might also evoke painful memories. Purging ourselves of such objects may consequently have a cathartic effect (Miller 2010). This process of unburdening is the underlying idea for the Museum of Broken Relationships (MBR). Starting out as an art-based project, the museum has become a worldwide success, with travelling exhibitions and a permanent museum home in Zagreb. The exhibition consists of donated personal objects accompanied by a story of a broken relationship. Articles may act as symbols and containers for stories, but may also actively help us to tell stories. The objects, here, help both in expressing feelings for which we might lack words and in aligning the personal and the communal – to strengthen our sense of self while communicating complex emotions to others. With a point of departure in the MBR we explore how a narrative reframing of an object gives it a new form of agency and “second life” (Honko 2013). Through this recrafting process, everyday objects otherwise anonymous and destined to be discarded, may take a crucial position in communicating emotions and aesthetics, as well as having the power to coalesce the past and the present.