In the heart of old Ljubljana, a mannequin with a bucket on its head welcomes visitors to a new and ambitious project – a museum focusing on the varied and sometimes antagonistic humour of the former Yugoslavia
On the main promenade along the river that runs through Ljubljana, Slovenia’s capital, tourists stop to photograph a mannequin with a bucket on its head. Dressed in a pistachio jacket and red leggings, the figure sits at a table in front of one of the houses in the historic Old Town, staring at a spilled cup of Turkish coffee, popular with Slovenes and with the other Balkan and central European citizens with whom they shared a country, until it collapsed in the early 1990s. A large sign in the background reads: “Bullshit Museum: The world is off the rails, and so are we. Yebiga!”
Yebiga, which can be loosely translated as “fuck it”, or “screw it”, is the red thread running through the museum that was launched in May and consists of five small rooms filled with mannequins wearing odd accessories, AI-generated images of laughing characters and scenes accompanying some of the jokes, framed or displayed on cardboard screens. The word encompasses the heart of Balkan humour, says the museum’s founder, Borut Kokelj, who wears a T-shirt emblazoned with the words: “What part of yebiga don’t you understand?”
