The Museum of Innocence

The Museum of Innocence is both the title of a novel by Orhan Pamuk and the name of a museum he has established. From the very beginnings of the project, since the 1990s, Pamuk has conceived of novel and museum together. The novel, which is about love, is set between 1974 and the early 2000s, and describes life in Istanbul between 1950 and 2000 through memories and flashbacks centered around two families – one wealthy, the other lower middle class. The museum presents what the novel’s characters used, wore, heard, saw, collected and dreamed of, all meticulously arranged in boxes and display cabinets. The novel was published in 2008; the museum opened in spring 2012.