Orhan Pamuk's museum to go to London for show next year

ISTANBUL

Exhibits from the Museum of Innocence, the award-winning Istanbul museum created by the Nobel Prize-winning novelist Orhan Pamuk in 2012, will go on show early next year at the Somerset House in London as part of a special display, the Art Newspaper has reported. The Museum of Innocence is based on the author’s 2008 novel of the same name, a love story in which the narrator, Kemal, collects numerous items owned by his cousin and love, Füsun. 

The museum, which was named the 2014 European Museum of the Year, is home to 83 wooden boxes related to the book’s 83 chapters. Each box is filled with items—both ready-made pieces and commissioned works of art—that reflect each chapter, thereby covering a 30-year period in the history of modern Istanbul from 1975, when the novel begins.

The Museum of Innocence is, meanwhile, the focus of a major documentary feature that premiered at the Venice Film Festival earlier this month. Pamuk was involved in the making of the 95-minute film, “Innocence of Memories: Orhan Pamuk’s Museum and Istanbul,” which is directed by British filmmaker Grant Gee.

The documentary brings to life Pamuk’s museum. Pamuk wrote the film’s narration, which is relayed by a childhood friend of Füsun, the novel’s lead female character.