Istanbul-based Tabanlıoğlu Architects used “the power of design” to transform literature into a powerful physical encounter for the visitors of London Design Festival last September. Inspired by the novel Madonna in a Fur Coat by famous Turkish writer Sabahattin Ali (1907 - 1948), the architects created Beloved, a 13-meter-long mirror panel containing digital screens. The work was installed at the Victoria & Albert Museum where visitors could catch glimpses of videos and text through slits on the mirrors’ surface, which blended with their own reflection and the grand architecture around them as seen through the black mirrors.

Created by Melisa Mızraklı, the videos presented chapters from the life of the author Ali and the protagonist of his novel, Raif, creating interesting parallels between the two: Madonna in a Fur Coat is the story of a young man who leaves rural Turkey for Berlin in the 1930's, where he meets an enchanting woman whom he cannot forget for the rest of his life. Ali himself studied in Germany and worked as a teacher of German in Turkish schools, before he was imprisoned for his political beliefs. The image of mid-war Berlin, with its busy streets and thriving art scene, must have symbolised freedom and happiness for Ali, who in the meantime, was imprisoned for a second time. Unfortunately Ali never managed to escape Kemalist Turkey and his enemies there: when he tried to escape Turkey in 1948, he was shot on the Turkish-Bulgarian border and his body was found three months later.