A space dedicated to the famous Argentine novelist Jorge Luis Borges was opened on June15 in the courtyard of the Cini Foundation, on the island of San Giorgio Maggiore in Venice. Called the Borges Labyrinth, the space was designed by British architect Randoll Coate. Extending over an area 2,300 square metres, the labyrinth and garden celebrates the life of the great twentieth-century poet and marks the 25th anniversary of his death. Inspired by The Garden of Forking Paths, one of Borges’ most famous stories (in the collection Fictions, 1935-1944), the memorial garden contains 3,250 boxwood plants.
The Venice labyrinth is the second such garden to celebrate Borges. The first, the Los Alamos estate, near San Rafael in Argentina, opened in 2003. However, Borges, who died in Geneva on June 14, 1986, deeply loved Venice and the writer’s second wife, Maria Kodama, strongly supported the Italian project.
