Dear Jo,
Yay! Am in the home of one of our favourite
writers, the great honorable Jorges Luis Borges himself - Buenos Aires!
How is it that after obsessing about his
labyrinthine writing for so long, that I had not realised he was Argentinian –
did you know that? Anyway, he is and there is even a whole gallery space
named after him, the Borges Casa Cultural where Daniela and I went the other
day and saw a whole load of exhibitions in one.
As I writer yourself I reckon you'll like this quote taken from the image above right (and perhaps as a fan of Borges you recognise it?)
"A man proposed the task of drawing the world. Over the years he filled a space with images of provinces, kingdoms, mountains, bays, ships, fish, rooms, instruments, stars, horses and people. Just before dying he discovered that this patient labyrinth of lines traced the image of his own face."
Jorges Luis Borges
From what I could make out of the text from the newspaper clipping above, Borges 'disappeared' at some point. In the context of the political history of Argentina and it's military dictatorship from 1976-83 I immediately assumed on reading this that Borges had been one of the 'disappeared'. When I did a swift wikipedia search, I learned instead that actually Borges was Liberalist and opposed to the Communist stance of state over individual, so was opposed to the Peron government that preceded the military rule. Apparently he even initially supported the military government, until he was shocked by their actions during the 'Dirty War' as the years of the dictatorship years are called. He therefore stopped writing for the newspaper La Nación, which apparently supported the regime, so I wonder is this withdrawal the 'disappearance' the newspaper clipping refers to? Or is it just that this was printed after his death from cancer in 1986?
Eeee...Joe, when I’m back in the summer, I have to read your thesis. I’m sorry I didn’t have the chance before I
left, but I’d really love to when I get back to see your perspective on his
writing, particularly seeing as he was one of the ones I referenced in my
thesis back at art college – do you remember how obsessed I was with
‘multiplicity’ and non-linear narrative forms? Whenever I think of the
playing-card based film experiments I started exploring at Byam Shaw I feel the
urge to return to these themes. I wonder
would your thesis be an inspiring motivation?!
Pietro Mancini: Pellicole 2011
"the adolescent stage never ends if we refer ourselves to the need to grow and learn"
Before I go... here's another image (again from the Borges centre, from the Italian Institute exhibition of multiple Italian artists) that reminded me of you by reminding me of another shared favourite author's work - Kafka's Metamorphosis. Thought you might appreciate it, and the artist's attitude about life - as long as we hold on to the thirst for learning we will always be teenagers at heart! (Also another connection to my Byam Shaaw years and the obsessive insect making - remember the wire and latex wings? I like it then that you can see my shadow in the glass overlaying these insects !)
Hope you’re well and happy m’lovely lad - are you writing at the minute?
Send
my love to Sue as well.
Big love,
Kim
:-)
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