Godrej Loud DreamAdwait Deshpande

MDI, GurgaonPGPM 16/18

As the planks of Theseus' ship needed repair, it was replaced part by part, up to a point where not a single part from the original ship remained in it, anymore. Is it, then, still the same ship?

If all the discarded parts were

used to build another ship, which of the two, if either, is the real Ship of Theseus?

Objects are nothing more than a bundle of their properties, one of them being the sentiments we attach to them.

Originator of the Bundle Theory of Objects

“...man's sentimental attachment to objects is one of life's greatest consolations.”

― Orhan Pamuk

(Winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature, 2006)

My DreamTo visit the Masumiyat Müzesi (Museum of Innocence) in Istanbul, Turkey The Museum of Innocence is both a novel by Orhan Pamuk and a museum he has set up. 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 ’00s, 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. It is not essential to have read the book in order to enjoy the museum, just as it is not necessary to have visited the museum in order to fully enjoy the book.

But those who have read the novel will better grasp the many connotations of the museum, and those who have visited the museum will discover many nuances they had missed when reading the book. The novel was published in 2008, the museum opened in Spring 2012.

Masumiyat Müzesi

Why do I want to visit the museum?

Keen Interest in Art Passion for Literature

The Museum of Innocence coalesces both my favorite

avocations

Artists & Authors I AdmireFavorite Authors

• Philosophical Fiction – Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Franz Kafka, Leo Tolstoy, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

• Magical Realism – Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Salman Rushdie, Zadie Smith

• Fantasy Fiction – J.R.R. Tolkien, J.K. Rowling, Lewis Carroll

• Social Realism – Thomas Hardy, Charles Dickens, V.S. Naipaul, Orhan Pamuk

• Others – Graham Greene, Pico Iyer, Vladmir Nabokov, Gustave Flaubert

Favorite Artists• Baroque Art – Caravaggio, Rebrandt,

Diego Velazquez, Michelangelo• Impressionist Art – Claude Monet,

Paul Cézanne, Georges Seurat, Henri Matisse

• Expressionist Art – Amedeo Modigliani, Francis Bacon, Edvard Munch, Wassily Kandinsky

• Surrealism – Salvador Dali, Marcel Duchamp, Rene Magritte, Giorgio de Chirico

• Minimalism – Dan Flavin, Robert Morris, Eva Hesse

An Ode to the Museum of Innocence

Not long ago in a charming dream,the shadows danced and the moonlight beamed. I found myself in Istanbul,the sky was bruised; the breeze was cool. The cobblestone streets seemed enchanted,the yellow lamps made the shadows look slanted. I wandered along the Bosphorus,soft waves whispered to both of us.

As I made it to her home,I saw her in the flesh and bone.

The harsh wind blew up the dirt,A bird is fluttering in your skirt. (I said) She was gone, only her things remained,On seeing her brooch, I was pained. As I kissed the patch on her sleeve,I had decided never to leave. My only consolation now is her things,Her scarf, her perfume, her clip, and her rings.

A collection of my poems and essays

Having spent weeks observing the works of the two most prominent museums of renaissance and modern art, i.e., the Museum of Modern Art, New York and the Louvre, Paris; I actually had an opportunity to see the paintings of the great masters and savants who by the power of their work influenced other artists and brought about a variety of movements in art.

However I observed that large museums in their essence, present the

story of the nation (history) as being far more important than the stories of individuals. This is unfortunate because the stories of individuals are much better suited to displaying the depths of our humanity.

Demonstrating the wealth of Chinese, Indian, Mexican, Iranian, or Turkish history and culture is not an issue—it must be done, of course, but it is not difficult to do. The real challenge is to use museums to tell, with the same brilliance, depth, and power, the stories of the individual human beings living in these countries.

Museums like the Masumiyat Müzesi

Help recreate the universe individual human beings dwell in

Tell stories of individuals revealing the depth of humanity

Let objects be kept in their natural environs thereby providing the full context of their existence

Honour the lives of ordinary people Enable people to tell their own life stories

We Have

• Epics

• Representation

• Monuments

• Histories

• Nations

• Groups and Teams

• Large and Expensive

We Need

• Novels

• Expression

• Homes

• Stories

• Persons

• Individuals

• Small and Cheap

Why go see an obscure museum in Turkey?

- Former Prime Minister of Turkey

Istanbul - Birlikte KöprüIstanbul is the confluence of the East & the West.

It is built on an European model of a city but has an unique Asian flavour.

This is because it has been tossed to and fro between empires that have eastern or western roots

(Ottoman and Byzantine).Just exploring the melting pot that is Istanbul would be

an experience in itself, which is why it is my dream to visit Istanbul and the Museum of Innocence in it.

Budget• Airfare (2 way) – Rs.

40,000• Visa fees – Rs. 4,100• Accommodation,

Internal Transportation, and Food – Rs. 60,000

Total – Rs. 104,100

“In poetically well built museums, formed from the heart's compulsions, we are consoled not by finding in them old objects that we love, but by losing all sense of Time.” 

― Orhan Pamuk, The Museum of Innocence

Thank You

For the Opportunity

Adwait Deshpande PGPM 16/18 MDI, Gurgaon