Both a museum and a novel, and love and obsession

Did you have the opportunity to visit the "Museum of Innocence" in Istanbul, based on Orhan Pamuk's novel of the same name?

The main character of this novel, Kemal, a member of high society, is in love with Fusun, a young girl from a different social milieu. In a tragic turn of events, he obsessively collects every item she touches. From that unusual obsession of the hero of the novel, Orhan Pamuk's idea to build a museum for the novel is born, in real time, space and life.

In Çukurdzuma, in the cosmopolitan district of Beyoğlu, Pamuk placed his true Museum of Innocence. Ceremonially opened in April 2012, the Museum of Innocence is based entirely on a literary work, the novel of the same name published by Pamuk in 2008, making it the first of its kind in the world. The museum, which took Pamuk almost 10 years to create, displays hundreds of objects and trinkets related to the characters and events mentioned in the book.

Thus, nine years after the purchase of an old three-story house in Istanbul's Çukurdzuma district in 1999, the renovation of the future museum space, as well as the book entitled "Museum of Innocence", was completed at the same time.

A steep, cobbled narrow street leads to the house where the writer, through a pile of antique trinkets, introduces visitors not only to the world of Kemal and Fusuna, the world of the author of the text, but also to the cultural history of Turkey, and to the drastic transformations the country has undergone. Each of the 83 showcases is a window into the soul of Istanbul, each piece has been carefully selected and is clearly a labor of love. And "love" is the key word in the whole project. Not only Kemal's love for Fusun, but also Pamuk's unwavering dedication and passion for his City, country and literature.

For tourists visiting a museum in Istanbul, finding its location in the maze of streets of the City is only part of the experience.

"The poor, dilapidated and sloppy appearance of these settlements 10-15 years before I opened the museum sometimes made me depressed," says Pamuk. With the help of the museum, he wanted to give these neighborhoods a "poetic aura". And he succeeded.

Just as the novel does in its imaginary way, that museum also intends to collect and exhibit the objects of the "Museum of Innocence" in its material way.