“Words and Images”: Orhan Pamuk’s Pen Meets Moleskine Notebooks
Labirinto della Masone di Franco Maria Ricci in Fontanellato, one of Italy’s outstanding open-air museums, is currently hosting a special exhibition dedicated to Orhan Pamuk, the recipient of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2006, showcasing his unpublished graphic productions. Titled “Words and Images,” the exhibition presents 12 notebooks from Pamuk, who has been diligently writing and drawing in his Moleskine notebooks for over a decade. Displayed in the museum’s Labyrinth Gallery, the notebooks are complemented by a multimedia experience created by NEO [Narrative Environments Operas], providing visitors with a journey into the inner world of the artist-writer Pamuk.
In the first room of the exhibition, the notebooks selected by Pamuk, and curator Edoardo Pepino are openly displayed. Accompanying the notebooks are digital screens that allow visitors to flip through the pages, zoom in on numerous drawings, and read translated texts. Moving to the second room of the exhibition, a video projection featuring a new interview with Pamuk aims to deepen understanding by discussing the author’s poetic language and the intricate relationship between words and images. The final section, inspired by Pamuk’s home, provides a privileged vantage point to observe Istanbul and the diverse worlds it encompasses. Six adjacent and slightly overlapping screens, reminiscent of the windows of a dwelling, present images projected from notebooks alternating with photographs and written notes, where dreams and events seamlessly intertwine. In this section, the “big, heavy” Turkish carpets, as described by Pamuk in his memoirs, are also showcased as a metaphor for the author’s personal grounding.
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The oldest drawing found in the notebooks dates back to 2009, while the most recent works from 2023 are also on view in the exhibition. The pages of the notebooks feature visual poems, dreamlike atmospheres, and travel notes that emanate from the author’s inner world. Pamuk’s urge to write and draw, filling each page with intensity, forms the basis of his instinctive artistic practice where literature, thought, and painting complement each other. Words and images become essential elements of composition, depicting landscapes or environments. Word cascades, wave compositions, colors, sounds, lines, dots, and letters all intertwine...
In conjunction with the exhibition of notebooks signed by Orhan Pamuk, Moleskine, in a special limited edition produced in collaboration with Franco Maria Ricci, emphasizes the significance of running a pen over a blank page as an intellectual and reflective act. This special edition, designed to be a “conceptual catalog,” represents a universal yet highly personal gesture in which everyone can participate with their own handwriting.
“Words and Images” will be open for visits at Labirinto della Masone until March 17, 2024.
