Object love: “Married to the Eiffel Tower”

Object love: “Married to the Eiffel Tower”

From the opening to Married to the Eiffel Tower:

“I am a woman, and this is a bridge. And despite our vast differences, we are very much in love. And our love is no different from any other love that exists between two beings. One of the most difficult parts of being in love with a public object, is that he and i can never be truly intimate. Whereas objects i’ve loved in the past, that has never been an issue…”

I found an interesting documentary about people who have relationships with objects, who connected online together in a group known as Objectùm-Sexuality Internationale. Their website states that they denounced the above documentary for its “sensationalist” take on things, but seeing as to how there are few other documents of this, this is probably one of the few avenues to get an insight into this.

I suppose what’s really curious is how they speak at length of their love in incredibly poetic terms, and that it was started by a model-builder who was able to build models of her love. There is a scene in which they take a miniature replica of the structure along with them when they go to visit the actual structure itself.

What exactly are they in love with then? I am not so clear on this. Are they attracted to the physical geometry (a lot of them express a love for fences and other similar structures), or the concept (politically significant objects like the Berlin Wall, and beautiful public attractions that give joy to other people such as the Eiffel Tower), or the “authentic” physical structure itself as an entire functional object? And crucially, I wonder, what role does the smaller replica play in all this? This is all so mysterious!