Orhan Pamuk: The Art of Friction/ Selene Wendt

The Art of Fiction offered a unique journey through Orhan Pamuk’s literature, with The Museum of Innocence as the focal point. Orhan Pamuk’s critically acclaimed novel The Museum of Innocence is both a classic love story and an ode to Istanbul. The exhibition featured twenty-nine replicas of vitrines from The Museum of Innocence in Istanbul. Inside each vitrine is a selection of carefully composed objects that reference specific chapters in the novel The Museum of Innocence. It is worth mentioning the strong link between Orhan Pamuk’s vitrines and Joseph Cornell’s shadow boxes as Pamuk’s vitrines are based on many of the same principles: ready-mades, found objects, assemblage, the relationship between objects, and surrealism. The vitrines were complemented by historical film footage, family photographs, a sound component, and an interactive video presentation of Orhan Pamuk’s notebooks filled with texts and watercolors. The Art of Fiction also featured twelve original accordion notebooks filled with words and images, which have never been presented or published previously. The exhibition was curated by Selene Wendt, in collaboration with The Museum of Innocence, for The Museum of Cultural History, Oslo, where it was on view May 22 - October 15, 2017.

English