Del océano al verso. Las caracolas de Pablo Neruda

and an endless number of pieces, a tendency in which several avantgarde and surrealist artists also participated. This idea suggests that through their collections these individuals proposed a revision of the world and the things that constitute it from diverse perspectives. This, in synchrony with the paradigms of nineteenth century collections, a period in which individuals adopted the practice of showing their intellectual, economic and social status through the exhibition of material objects, revealing their ideology or their relationship with the political environment. At the same time, the act of collecting pieces of natural origin connects with the cabinets of curiosities of the seventeenth century, a time when interest in the exotic and pristine spread all over the world. Part of the treasures gathered by Neruda were donated, by him, to the Universidad de Chile on January 20, 1964, through a formal act which also celebrated his 50 years. The corpus of the collection consists of 5.000 books, 8.400 seashells, 260 magazines and 155 records. During the ceremony, after hearing a speech delivered by president Juan Gómez Millas, Neruda declared regarding his collection that: "I’m handing over these books born from universal culture, these seashells belonging to every ocean, and these sea foam from the seven seas, with a sense of duty and conscience, and to repay a small part of what I have received". 8 This allows us to identify what Kelly Austin recognizes as " a reconciliation of personal property with communal property as well as an understanding of the ways this personal [8] Discurso del rector de la Universidad de Chile, Don Juan Gómez Millas y de Pablo Neruda, pronunciadas en el acto inaugural de la Fundación, el día 20 de junio de 1954 (Fundación Pablo Neruda, 1954), 19. 66 universidad de chile