Each screen of this triptych video flows at its own pace, making it virtually impossible for the
viewer to catch the same threefold configuration twice. The asynchrony of the flow of
images creates a perpetual renewal of a unique combination, composition and narration.
Every element of this layout – in which Ali puts the viewers’ gaze to work, compelling us to
draw connections – make us witness the tortuous process of creation, while uncovering the
writer’s tireless effort to find the right word from time to time. Concurrently, under the
magnifying glass of this study of a space, we are granted access to the writer’s most
vulnerable moments, obsessions, customs and peculiarities. Disjecta membra, scattered
fragments from Pamuk’s body of work, seem to expect us to reassemble the methodically
scattered pieces of an extensive mind and imagination. According to the writer himself,
“Novels are second lives.” As we witness how these second lives are conceived and lived –
first in the mind, then within the space of a notebook – and see how the writer travels
between times, spaces and personalities, we take a step towards meeting that expectation.

[Nilüfer Şaşmazer, excerpt from the essay written for the exhibition Sentimental, at New National
Museum of Monaco]