Finally, finally made it over to the Homage to Girondo at the Xul Solar Museum. Today is the last day of the two month exhibition, so if you didn’t make it then you’ve missed it.

On display were many examples of books by Oliverio Girondo, one of Argentina’s most important poets of the 20th century. Books by his wife Norah Lange were also on display. Many of the items on display came from the collection of their niece Susana Lange. This year marked the 40th anniversary of Girondo’s death.

Also on display were drawings by Girondo. He was definitely no artist, especially when showcased in the same room as the magnificent works by Xul Solar. It was interesting to see some of Girondo’s drafts for cover designs of his books.

The highlight of the exhibition and something that I’ve been wanting to see for a long time is the academician that Girondo used to promote one of his most known books, Espantapájaros. I’ve written before about the publicity of that book when I posted about the house on Suipacha where Girondo and Lange lived. Here is the cover of the book:

And below is the super-sized model for that cover, an object that later graced the entrance hallway of Girondo’s house.

Another view with some of Xul Solar’s paintings on the wall in the background.

Out of the Woods Now is one of those good literary blogs you should be reading if you’re interested in such things…A posting from earlier this week is on The Invention of Morel by Adolfo Bioy Casares:

Any discussion of the plot would detract from the experience of encountering it for the first time, but suffice it to say that it involves obsession, immortality, fame, love, the parallel destinies of men and the images they create, and a woman named Faustine (which made me think of Goethe and deals with the devil). The invention itself is something we’re on the verge of today–I was stunned when I flipped to the copyright page and discovered that it was first published in 1940 (!).

Some photos from Monday’s Fiesta de la Democracia in Plaza de Mayo. The crowd wasn’t nearly as large as it looks in the photos or on TV. Everybody was crammed into the part of the Plaza that is nearest the Casa Rosada. On the other side of the security fence that runs across the Plaza were very few people. For most events the security fence is used to keep the crowd far away from Casa Rosada. This time the fence came in useful to make it appear that there was a larger crowd.

As I mentioned in Monday’s post, if the Kirchners hadn’t bused in a ton of supporters then there would have been very few people present. Befitting a peronist shindig, wandering through the crowd was a guy selling huge photos of Evita.