See through the illusion to find reality!
One of the top tourist attractions in Zagreb, The Museum of Illusions teamed up with UNICEF to create the ‘Museum of Reality’, offering visitors a unique experience. This is the third year in a row that you will be able to enter the everyday life of the most disadvantaged children in the world through this interactive journey. This museum exhibition (or maybe we could even call it performance) will be open for three days, December 11th through 13th, in the centre of the Advent-celebrating Zagreb, giving us the opportunity to find out just how lucky and privileged we are, living the comfortable Western lives.
The illusions at the Museum of illusions will serve the exact opposite purpose for those three days, showing you the reality we prefer not to be aware of. Virtual reality, experience rooms, optical illusions, holograms and UNICEF installations will take you on a personal interactive journey through the earliest childhood of those less fortunate, showing you their reality, explaining to you what they consider to be the most important “gifts” they can be given and how the chances in life for each child depend on their place of birth.
You will be able to play the “Lottery of Life” and find out what could have happened to you if you were born somewhere else, and what your chances would have been. What would have happened to you if you had to face violence from the earliest childhood, try and catch any drop of water you could find, find your way after the hurricane took everything from you or if you had to wait for a package of food from the sky and your life depended on it.
This year’s theme is “The Gifts for a Lifetime”, and the story told is how for children health, food, education, family and safety are the most precious gifts, and how we as a society have to work toward providing those gifts to each child, no matter where they were born as a result of this “Lottery of Life”.
The visitors will also be able to find out what UNICEF, supported by the ordinary people around the world, does for the most underprivileged children, and join the Childhood Guardians (Čuvari djetinjstva) programme to support the creation of a better, safer and fairer world for children.
So, during this holiday season, join a different holiday story, visit the Museum of Reality, put on a “blue cap” and give gifts that will last a lifetime. The entrance to the museum is free, and the interactive exhibition will be open in The Museum of Illusions (Ilica 72) on Monday, the 11th from noon until 10 pm, and on Tuesday and Wednesday (12th and 13th) from 9 am until 10 pm.
