Updated Date : 15.01.2022
Museum of Innocence, Istanbul
The Museum of Innocence is the realization of an author's word. It is both a showcase of love, fiction, and the representation of the actual life of Istanbul in the second half of the 20th century. The foundation of the Museum is laid upon a novel by Orhan Pamuk. The novel was published in 2008, and the Museum was opened to the public in 2012.
Pamuk always had this plan of building up a museum consisting of pieces that have associated memories and meanings from the era explained in the novel from the beginning. The art pieces are arranged in the order discussed in the novel. The painstaking attention to detail can keep every visitor enthralled and mesmerized in the concept. It is said that Pamuk had been collecting these pieces since the 1990s when he first came by the idea of writing a novel penned under the same name.
The concept of the Museum of innocence
The Museum of Innocence is centered around the story of two classical love birds. The hero Kemal is from a typical upper-class Istanbul family, and his loved Fusun is from a relatively middle-class family. Although both of them are distant cousins, there is not much common between them. According to Kemal's narrative, marrying Sibel, a girl closer to his social status, falls in love with his distant cousin Fusun. Things got complicated from here on or rather dreamy.
They used to meet in a dusty room with old furniture. That is where the whole architecture of the Museum is inspired from. After Fusun marries someone else, Kemal used to visit the same place for eight years. He used to take something from the place during every visit to remain with him as a memory. According to the Museum's website, these reminiscents constitute the collections of the Museum.
The Museum's building is a reserved 19th century Timber house. The timber house with its vitrines has been idealized to retell the love affair in the most authentic way possible. Every installation in the Museum narrates a story that reconnects the past and present.
What is inside?
The Museum of innocence is divided into floors. The exhibits are displayed on four of the five floors. Each exhibition showcases the different novel's characters used, wore, heard, saw, collected, and even dreamed of, all painstakingly arranged in boxes and display cabinets. These also represent, in general, the life of Istanbul in those days. As the novel's protagonist belonged to two different social statuses, the Museum represents various both.
You have the option to rent an audio guide when you enter the Museum. So when you move from cabinet to cabinet, you can listen to the audio guide describing its connection to the novel. The reference to the novel makes the Museum look more realistic, and the Museum's existence makes the novel feel more natural. This connection leaves many enamored.
The exhibits are arranged in cabinets that are numbered and titled according to the chapters in the novel. It is said that the top floor was inhabited by Kemal Basmaci from 2000 to 2007 when the Museum was built. The novel's manuscripts mainly occupy this floor. The largest and the only cabinet that is not arranged according to the novel's sequence is box number 68, entitled '4213 Cigarette Stubs.
The Final Word
The Museum of Innocence has history and is one of the best museums in the world. A trip to Istanbul is incomplete without visiting this heaven of fiction and love. Although it is not necessary that you read the novel before seeing the Museum, everything will make more sense if you do.