Museum of Innocence
Orhan Pamuk’s Museum of Innocence, located in Çukurcuma, one of the most cosmopolitan neighborhoods in Istanbul, holds a collection of assemblages of daily life objects, installed in display cases, bringing Pamuk’s 2008 novel, on which the museum is based, to life. Each display case refers to a chapter in his novel. In a series of personal mementos, a love story between the two characters, Füsun and Kemal, is preserved in the building where Kemal visited Füsun. Each object in the collection reminds Kemal of Füsun and speaks to his desire to keep her alive in his memory. The Consolations of Life in a Yali, pictured above, is one such installation the author exhibits and expresses the nostalgic, at times melancholic, moments of yali life. Cosmopolitan life in the city is evoked through a black and white photograph of the Rumeli Hisar castle across the Bosporus waters evokes a view from a yali window. Additionally, there are some pearls and a watch that speak to the cosmopolitan attractions and pursuits of Istanbulites. In the foreground there is a table-scape inspired by the composition of Dutch still life paintings during the 16th and 17th centuries. On the white tablecloth, there is a cup of Turkish tea, food, including some grapes, a fried mackerel fish, and Yeni raki. Indeed, The Consolations of Life in a Yali, resembles memento mori, an artistic reminder of the inevitable passage of time.
Sources:
For Image: Google Arts&Culture
https://artsandculture.google.com/exhibit/the-museum-of-innocence/XgJyIqBekvaEKw
Museum of Innocence /Masumiyet Müzesi Website: https://en.masumiyetmuzesi.org/
Orhan Pamuk. The Innocence of Objects, The Museum of Innocence Istanbul. Abrams: New York, 2012.