Turkish Nobel laureate Pamuk opens 'Museum of Innocence'
ISTANBUL - Hürriyet Daily News
Nobel laureate author Orhan Pamuk started collecting the belongings for the museum before he wrote the novel.
Cataloguing Turkey’s history between 1950 and 2000 and paralleling a recent book by Turkey’s Nobel laureate, Istanbul’s Masumiyet Müzesi (Museum of Innocence) is set to open at the end of the month.Award-winning author Orhan Pamuk designed the museum with artifacts inspired by Füsun, the lover of the protagonist Kemal in the novel of the same name.
The museum is situated in an old building in Çukurcuma that was made in 1897.
Pamuk said the museum, which was briefly opened to journalists for a tour on April 13, would draw plenty of visitors even if they had not read the book itself thanks to Füsun’s artifacts, which symbolize daily life in Istanbul during the second half of the 20th century and include small knickknacks, tickets and memorabilia from old movies of Istanbul.
The Nobel laureate said he had been contemplating the museum and the book for the past 15 years but added that the former also told a separate story.
Venue of a love story
The museum is the visual aspect of Kemal and Füsun’s love story. Light that shines from above on the floor illuminates the belongings of Füsun, providing a visuality to the novel.
Visitors will be able to see 4,213 cigarettes that Füsun smoked, while each story of the museum reflects a period from the past life of Istanbul. In the attic, visitors encounter the room in which Kemal had used to write his novel for many years. The room also features the manuscript for the novel, as well as designs that Pamuk made for the museum.
Pamuk started collecting the belongings in the museum space before he wrote the novel and continued collecting while writing “Museum of Innocence.”
After the completion of the novel, Pamuk added many belongings to the museum along with voice installations.
Pamuk worked with architects İhsan Bilgin, Cem Yücel and Gregor Sunder Plassmann for the museum.
The museum, which is at 24 Çukurcuma Street in Cihangir, will open April 28.
Pamuk won Turkey’s only Nobel prize when he took home the award for literature in 2006 for his semi-autobiographical work “Istanbul: Memories and the City.”
