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Lot Essay
‘Twenty-five is the square of the holy number five and is herefore also the centre of magical squares. It consists of the sum of the numbers 1+3+5+7+9 and therefore contains all the holy numbers which can be used in magic’. (Alighiero Boetti, quoted in Alighiero Boetti, Mettere Al Mondo Il Mondo, exh. cat., Frankfurt, 1998. p. 117).
Founded on Boetti’s principle of ordine e disordine (the notion that the unity of the world comprises entirely of a yin and yang-like division of order and disorder), Boetti’s Arazzi are a colourful composite of organised disorder. Consisting of individual coloured letters each highlighted or obscured against a contrasting square coloured background that was determined by the Afghan women whom Boetti commissioned to embroider these spectacular works according to his guidelines, the Arazzi are essentially written texts.
This Arazzo (Tapestry) entitled, Oggi ventisettesimo giorno settimo mese dell’anno mille nove 100 ottantotto all’amato Pantheon immaginando tutto (Today the twenty seventh day of the seventh month of 1988 to the beloved Pantheon imagining everything) is one of Boetti’s great series of permutated word and colour tapestries that serve as a kind of compendium of many of the artist’s favourite themes, philosophies and axioms. It comprises of 625 coloured squares against which a letter in a different colour has been embroidered.
Each of these squares combines into a 5x5 square of twenty-five larger squares that when read vertically make up a single phrase or sentence. In this way, twenty-five separate axioms are contained within this dazzling but seemingly impenetrable mosaic that gives a sense of, as some of its sentences in fact read, ‘all the colours of the world’, ‘imagining everything’, ‘putting words into the infinitive/setting words free.’
Among the other phrases contained in this work are self-referential ones such as the date and title of the work, Millenovecentoottantotto (1988) and Venticinque per venticinque (twenty-five x twenty-five) and Cinque x Cinque Venticinque (five x five twenty-five) Seicentoventicinque Lettere dai cento colori I colori del mondo Alighiero Boetti oggi ventisettesimo giorno settimo mese dell’ anno mille nove 100 ottantotto (625 colours in 100 colours, the colours of the world, Alighiero Boetti today, the twenty seventh day of the seventh month of 1988). Other phrases included are such wisdoms as: Lasciare il certo per l’incerto (Leave the certain for the uncertain), Perdita d’identità (loss of identity), Talvolta sole talvolta luna (Sometimes sun, sometimes moon), Verba Volant Scripta Manent (Spoken words fly away, written words remain), and Tra l’incudine e il martello (Between the anvil and the hammer).
By splitting each of these texts into their own constituent parts - its individual letters - Boetti exposes language as a sophisticated but nonetheless artificial systematic arrangement of form. As he was well aware, there is, within Islam, a long tradition of mysticism associated with the signs of letters. Over time, many complex mathematical and linguistic systems were devised using the organizing principles of sacred geometry or sacred calligraphy for example, to interweave numbers, images and texts into harmonious visual patterns that celebrate and worship the oneness of God. It is this tradition that the Arazzi adapt into the logic of their own creation. Exercises in both difference and union, these ultimately holistic works, embroidered in Afghanistan, symbolise not only the traditional differences between East and West but also their union through collaborative creative processes.
Founded on Boetti’s principle of ordine e disordine (the notion that the unity of the world comprises entirely of a yin and yang-like division of order and disorder), Boetti’s Arazzi are a colourful composite of organised disorder. Consisting of individual coloured letters each highlighted or obscured against a contrasting square coloured background that was determined by the Afghan women whom Boetti commissioned to embroider these spectacular works according to his guidelines, the Arazzi are essentially written texts.
This Arazzo (Tapestry) entitled, Oggi ventisettesimo giorno settimo mese dell’anno mille nove 100 ottantotto all’amato Pantheon immaginando tutto (Today the twenty seventh day of the seventh month of 1988 to the beloved Pantheon imagining everything) is one of Boetti’s great series of permutated word and colour tapestries that serve as a kind of compendium of many of the artist’s favourite themes, philosophies and axioms. It comprises of 625 coloured squares against which a letter in a different colour has been embroidered.
Each of these squares combines into a 5x5 square of twenty-five larger squares that when read vertically make up a single phrase or sentence. In this way, twenty-five separate axioms are contained within this dazzling but seemingly impenetrable mosaic that gives a sense of, as some of its sentences in fact read, ‘all the colours of the world’, ‘imagining everything’, ‘putting words into the infinitive/setting words free.’
Among the other phrases contained in this work are self-referential ones such as the date and title of the work, Millenovecentoottantotto (1988) and Venticinque per venticinque (twenty-five x twenty-five) and Cinque x Cinque Venticinque (five x five twenty-five) Seicentoventicinque Lettere dai cento colori I colori del mondo Alighiero Boetti oggi ventisettesimo giorno settimo mese dell’ anno mille nove 100 ottantotto (625 colours in 100 colours, the colours of the world, Alighiero Boetti today, the twenty seventh day of the seventh month of 1988). Other phrases included are such wisdoms as: Lasciare il certo per l’incerto (Leave the certain for the uncertain), Perdita d’identità (loss of identity), Talvolta sole talvolta luna (Sometimes sun, sometimes moon), Verba Volant Scripta Manent (Spoken words fly away, written words remain), and Tra l’incudine e il martello (Between the anvil and the hammer).
By splitting each of these texts into their own constituent parts - its individual letters - Boetti exposes language as a sophisticated but nonetheless artificial systematic arrangement of form. As he was well aware, there is, within Islam, a long tradition of mysticism associated with the signs of letters. Over time, many complex mathematical and linguistic systems were devised using the organizing principles of sacred geometry or sacred calligraphy for example, to interweave numbers, images and texts into harmonious visual patterns that celebrate and worship the oneness of God. It is this tradition that the Arazzi adapt into the logic of their own creation. Exercises in both difference and union, these ultimately holistic works, embroidered in Afghanistan, symbolise not only the traditional differences between East and West but also their union through collaborative creative processes.