A poetic collaboration between a visual artist and a writer.
A work of art that explores the affinities between childlike metaphysical questions and the joy of looking at the stars.

The project started in 2013, when the Turkish writer Orhan Pamuk decided to invite the Italian artist Grazia Toderi to work together on a work of art for the Museum of Innocence, which he had set up in Istanbul. Three years of work, conversations, meetings and intense correspondence between the two led to the creation of a trilogy consisting of a “monologue”, a “dialogue” and a “conversation” – in a total of eight videos, to be shown at the Museo d’arte moderna e contemporanea di Trento e Rovereto (Mart) in April 2017.
Subsequent to an invitation from Infini.to – Planetarium of Turin, the modern Science Centre in the hills just a few kilometres from Turin, a work has been specially created for the interior of the Planetarium dome. This will be shown on 5 and 6 November 2016, and a small but exquisite installation will be on display from 4 November 2016 to 16 January 2017 at the Museo d’Arte Antica in Palazzo Madama, Turin.

In Words and Stars, the words of Orhan Pamuk take up and expand the plot of The Museum of Innocence, the novel written by the Turkish writer in 2008, after which came the creation of the museum itself in Istanbul in 2012. The two main characters, who live through a thwarted love story, become children once again and ask themselves existential questions about the universe: can our thoughts be compared with distant moving stars? Is there some visual connection between the landscapes of our minds and the sky above our cities? These questions form the starting point for the joint venture between the visual artist and the writer, which takes shape in the trilogy, in which the “monologue” turns into a “dialogue” and into a “conversation”, transforming a personal experience into a universal one.

Palazzo Madama – Turin

4 November 2016 – 16 January 2017 | opening: Friday 4 November, 5 – 7 p.m.

Infini.to – Planetario di Torino – Pino Torinese
5-6 November 2016 | projections at 6.30 – 7 – 7.30 p.m.