One of the most often mentioned ‘collection’ in the museum is Cigarette Stubs – an installation representing the cigarette stubs that were once smoked by Fusun and collected by Kemal over several years. The story revolves around Kemal who falls in love with a distant cousin Fusun and as he becomes increasingly obsessed with her, he starts collecting things that reminds him of the object of his unwavering love. There are 83 chapters, each represented by a display case in the museum.
Having recently read Pamuk’s memoir Istanbul: Memories and the City, I decided to pick up The Museum of Innocence when I came across a copy at a secondhand Oxfam bookshop. What is it that the museum contains that exemplifies innocence? Is this a museum about innocence lost?
Its name and the story that lies within its walls intrigue me. You know how sometimes you come across something unfamiliar and it lingers in your mind? This is how I feel towards The Museum of Innocence – more so the museum than the book. What makes his idea exceptional is that he wrote “The Museum of Innocence”, a love story that mirrors the museum’s collection. The museum is the brainchild of Nobel Prize winner, Orhan Pamuk who is one of Turkey’s most internationally renowned contemporary writers. The Museum of Innocence, as I found out later, had opened in the previous month to much fanfare. The unusual-sounding museum on the street sign piqued my curiosity but I didn’t follow it as my nose led me in another direction, beckoned by the aroma of grilled food. It was my first night in Istanbul on my own after finishing a project in Etiler, another neighborhood on the European side of city. I first came upon The Museum of Innocence while wandering around the dimly lit streets of Beyoğlu in search of dinner at midnight.
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