In commemoration of the 40th anniversary of Jorge Luis Borges's death, an exhibition from the collection of Roemmers and Vaccaro is on display in Madrid
The writer Alejandro G. Roemmers and Alejandro Vaccaro, biographer of Jorge Luis Borges, have inaugurated the exhibition ‘Borges. Years of Literary Splendor’ at the Eugenio Trías Municipal Library (Casa de Fieras in El Retiro, Madrid), which will be open until July 9th. The exhibition is part of ‘Borges. The Collection’ by Alejandro Roemmers and Alejandro Vaccaro, featuring over 30,000 documents and items collected over more than 50 years that make up the Argentine writer’s legacy. The exhibition brings together original manuscripts, first editions, and key documents created between the late 1930s and early 1950s, a core period in the consolidation of Borges’s work. The materials in the exhibition come from essential books such as ‘The Garden of Forking Paths’, ‘Fictions’, and ‘The Aleph’, along with other texts revealing the breadth of topics and interests encompassed by the Argentine writer’s prodigious mind.
The Argentine poet and philanthropist Alejandro Roemmers highlighted that “Borges is a universe in himself” and that “his legacy remains alive.” That is the aim of the collection ‘Borges. The Collection’: “Collecting, when understood through humanism, is not an act of possession; it is an act of rescue. Each document you will see today constitutes an unrepeatable trace of Borges’s creative process. They are not just written pages, but also doubts, corrections, and moments of inspiration. We find, ultimately, the human trace behind an immortal work.”
“These treasures could not remain in trunks and fall into oblivion. We want them to belong to the world. They belong to researchers, students, academics, readers, and all those who find in literature a way to better understand the world,” added Roemmers, who thanked Alejandro Vaccaro for his “patience” when gathering the collection.
Borges’s biographer and president of the Argentine Society of Writers, Alejandro Vaccaro, explained the “careful work” involved in the collection and emphasized the presence of destiny: “As Borges used to say, destiny doesn’t make deals; it led me to cross paths with Alejandro Roemmers at one point in life, and I proposed this adventure to him.”
Vargas Llosa Claimed the Nobel Prize for Borges
“What you are going to see in this exhibition are Borges’s great masterpieces in manuscripts written in a truly microscopic and minuscule handwriting,” explained the president of the Vargas Llosa Chair, Álvaro Vargas Llosa. He shared an anecdote about how his father, Mario Vargas Llosa, before the Nobel Prize ceremony, asked the Permanent Secretary of the Academy why they never gave the Nobel Prize to Borges. “The Swede, despite being Swedish, was quite baffled, and this was reflected on his face in a highly liquid and invisible way,” he ironized.
“As a reader, I am looking forward to seeing his doubts, his strikethroughs, his hits, his handwriting. Manuscripts connect the writer’s routine with the fantasy of someone who forever shaped the path of all literature, especially fantastic literature,” noted the Delegate of the Government Area of Culture, Tourism, and Sports of the Madrid City Council, Marta Rivera de la Cruz.
Tribute on the 40th Anniversary of His Death
The municipal library will host the exhibition over the coming weeks, allowing visitors to discover the creative process of one of the most original and influential works of world literature, revealing the most intimate and artisanal dimension of Borgesian writing. This is an exceptional opportunity to approach the Borges of the handwritten word and enter the secret keys of a work that continues to dialogue with readers around the globe.
The exhibition ‘Borges. Years of Literary Splendor’ coincides with the 40th anniversary of the Argentine writer’s death. On this occasion, he will be commemorated in Geneva this weekend. On Saturday, Alejandro Roemmers and Alejandro Vaccaro will present ‘Borges. The Collection’ at the Maison Rousseau et Littérature. On June 14, the day the writer passed away in Geneva, a tribute will take place at the Plainpalais Cemetery where he is buried.
