Twenty-nine secret cases from Istanbul. A dramatic love story. A wonderful inspiration.
We are not talking about a new Netflix series, but about the new exhibition displayed at the Bagatti-Valsecchi museum in Milan: “Love, Museums and Inspiration“, which presents for the first time in Italy the Museum of Innocence written by Nobel Prize winner Orhan Pamuk to the luxurious Montenapoleone district in Milan.
The story that tells the Museum of Innocence, winner of the EMYA 2014, does not describe great artistic personalities or important historical events, but tells the anguished love between Kemal Basmaci, an alter ego of Pamuk, and his lover Füsun.

How to converge feelings, emotions and memories of an intimate and personal experience in a physical and concrete transposition? The solution adopted by Pamuk was to collect objects of all kinds making them become an essential part of the story.
The experiment gives life to an evocative and unusual collection, which not only intertwines with the plot of the novel, but becomes a way to express a new concept of museum. In fact, according to the author, a museum should be “a place where time  turns into space ” in order to get closer to the humanity of individuals.

The choice to host the exhibition at the Bagatti-Valsecchi, a museum also mentioned in the book, is not a coincidence but comes within the philosophy of the “Modest manifesto for museums” written by Pamuk and displayed in the last room of the show.
Pamuk becomes the conveyor of an ideal, that sees the enormous potential of small museums, intended as a profound representation of everyday life and the feelings of individuals through the story of modest and intimate stories.

Until June 24th, you will have the opportunity to let yourself be drawn into the love story between Kemal and Fusun, thanks to a pathway, created in collaboration with the students of the Brera Academy of Fine Arts, which presents interactive solutions and presonalized audio guide that can be downloaded for free directly from your phone.