Orhan Pamuk says #10: Museum curators should behave like novelists who explore the individuality of the person rather than the history of the state."

 Orhan Pamuk says "The individuality of one person lends meaning to the collection..."

"...Museum curators should behave like novelists who explore the individuality of the persons rather than the history of the state and the nation."

 

Visit the YouTube interview here.

 

"The habit of collecting, of attachment to things, is an essential human trait. But Western civilization put collecting on a pedestal by inventing museums. Museums are about representing power. It could be the king's power or, later, people's power."

"This has generally not been present in the non-Western world. There, the collector has been an individual who is doing something peculiar. He cannot be proud about what he is doing since his collection is not something that categorizes the larger human experience. On the contrary, it only signifies points of his own personal reality."

"However, in the last 50 years, the non-Western world is catching up with museums because it wants to represent its power. Most of the time such museums are about the power of the state. They are crude exercises, like waving a flag. This new museum mania avoids representing reality in an artistic or a personal way. Power is more important than art or the person. That is the trend."

"...in my novel, where Kemal collects the tea cup, cigarette butts, bedroom door handle and other items of Fusun, he is building a museum not to power but to the intimate experience of love, to an individual life. My point is that, whatever a life is made of, its dreams and disappointments, is worth taking pride in."