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Lot Essay
‘To my mind, the work of the embroidered map represents the supreme beauty’
–Alighiero Boetti
‘Boetti’s figurative thought revolves around order and disorder, chance and necessity, research and discovery, the similar and the different. Order is proportional to disorder as chance is proportional to necessity’
–Jean-Christophe Ammann
Completed in 1984 but actually conceived and signed by the artist in Kabul, Afghanistan in 1979, this work belongs to one of Alighiero Boetti’s most acclaimed and beloved series of creations: the Mappe. It has been in the same private collection for almost thirty years. Begun in 1971 and pursued throughout Boetti’s life until 1994, these embroidered works record a world map through the colourful representation of its flags and borders. The Mappe should be seen not as a series of individual works, but rather as a large ongoing project that responded to the fast changing and globalised world that was starting to appear in the 1970s. They mark the relation between Boetti and Afghanistan – where he travelled and stayed regularly until the Soviet invasion of 1979 – and testify to the collaboration with the Afghan women and men who became his lifelong assistants. Speaking an instantly recognisable language through their vibrant embroidered flags and coloured poetic sentences on the borders, the Mappe are among the first truly ‘global’ artworks. Reflecting the artist’s innate sense of beauty, these works combine his geopolitical interests with an existential meditation on the passage of time and the play of chance. The border of the present work combines two vertical inscriptions made by Boetti that read ‘Alighiero Boetti Afghanistan’ (left vertical border) and ‘Far Quadrare Tutto a Kabul nell’anno 84’ (‘To square everything up in Kabul in the year 84’), with two horizontal inscriptions made by the Afghan assistants that read ‘senza alcun nome o segno di riconoscimento, la mappa del mondo prende forma nel 1863. I musulmani sognanti viaggiano in un solo punto’ (‘The map of the world take shape in the year 1863. The dreaming Muslims travel, sleeping in just one place’). Boetti recorded its unusual five-year gestation in a photograph of the work, which he signed ‘1979- 1984’ on the back.
Boetti’s Mappe began in 1971, when he hand-drew and coloured the flags of two lithographs based on the design of the Gerardus Marcador Planisphere, a map from the 16th century. After the first two maps on paper, embroidery would become his primary medium. The artist would typically have the cloth with the outline of the political planisphere produced in Italy. He would then have it sent to Afghanistan to be embroidered, and would visit to check the final work. The communion of Eastern and Western thinking and craftsmanship fascinated Boetti throughout his career. ‘By combining artistic uniqueness and “Ethnological difference”’, writes Anne-Marie Sauzeau, they trace the conceptual direction of a Western artist and the ‘traditional craftsmanship of anonymous Afghan women’ (A-M. Sauzeau, quoted in J-C. Ammann, Alighiero Boetti, Catalogo generale, Mappe, Grandi Ricami, Biro, Aerei, 1980-1987, Milan 2015, p. 33). Due to the country’s difficult political situation, this process would become increasingly challenging, particularly following the Soviet invasion that would close Afghanistan’s border for 10 years.
The borders of the works are usually embroidered with fragments from the artist’s favourite poems, from poets such as Foscolo or Diderot, and with his most beloved phrases and concepts such as ‘Order and Disorder’ and, as in the present work, ‘Far Quadrare Tutto’. One such inscription, ‘Le cose nascono dalla necessita e dal caso’ (‘Things are born from necessity and chance’), sheds particular light on various challenges surrounding the production of the Mappe. As suggested by Jean-Christophe Ammann, ‘Boetti’s figurative thought revolves around order and disorder, chance and necessity, research and discovery, the similar and the different. Order is proportional to disorder as chance is proportional to necessity’ (J-C. Ammann, Alighiero Boetti, Catalogo generale, Mappe, Grandi Ricami, Biro, Aerei, 1980-1987, Milan 2015, p. 33). The present work, whose creation was interrupted by the Soviet invasion, may be seen as a living reflection of this concept: a testament to the unpredictability of the political landscape.
With their beautifully coloured flags and borders that record the world as it changed in front of the artist’s eyes, the Mappe – like many of Boetti’s greatest masterpieces – are truly conceptual and collaborative works. As we stand before them, attempting to decrypt their poetic inscriptions or to find our own flag, we become part of Boetti’s ‘game plan’: a captivating long-term project through which he sought to illuminate the beautiful order and disorder of life on earth.
–Alighiero Boetti
‘Boetti’s figurative thought revolves around order and disorder, chance and necessity, research and discovery, the similar and the different. Order is proportional to disorder as chance is proportional to necessity’
–Jean-Christophe Ammann
Completed in 1984 but actually conceived and signed by the artist in Kabul, Afghanistan in 1979, this work belongs to one of Alighiero Boetti’s most acclaimed and beloved series of creations: the Mappe. It has been in the same private collection for almost thirty years. Begun in 1971 and pursued throughout Boetti’s life until 1994, these embroidered works record a world map through the colourful representation of its flags and borders. The Mappe should be seen not as a series of individual works, but rather as a large ongoing project that responded to the fast changing and globalised world that was starting to appear in the 1970s. They mark the relation between Boetti and Afghanistan – where he travelled and stayed regularly until the Soviet invasion of 1979 – and testify to the collaboration with the Afghan women and men who became his lifelong assistants. Speaking an instantly recognisable language through their vibrant embroidered flags and coloured poetic sentences on the borders, the Mappe are among the first truly ‘global’ artworks. Reflecting the artist’s innate sense of beauty, these works combine his geopolitical interests with an existential meditation on the passage of time and the play of chance. The border of the present work combines two vertical inscriptions made by Boetti that read ‘Alighiero Boetti Afghanistan’ (left vertical border) and ‘Far Quadrare Tutto a Kabul nell’anno 84’ (‘To square everything up in Kabul in the year 84’), with two horizontal inscriptions made by the Afghan assistants that read ‘senza alcun nome o segno di riconoscimento, la mappa del mondo prende forma nel 1863. I musulmani sognanti viaggiano in un solo punto’ (‘The map of the world take shape in the year 1863. The dreaming Muslims travel, sleeping in just one place’). Boetti recorded its unusual five-year gestation in a photograph of the work, which he signed ‘1979- 1984’ on the back.
Boetti’s Mappe began in 1971, when he hand-drew and coloured the flags of two lithographs based on the design of the Gerardus Marcador Planisphere, a map from the 16th century. After the first two maps on paper, embroidery would become his primary medium. The artist would typically have the cloth with the outline of the political planisphere produced in Italy. He would then have it sent to Afghanistan to be embroidered, and would visit to check the final work. The communion of Eastern and Western thinking and craftsmanship fascinated Boetti throughout his career. ‘By combining artistic uniqueness and “Ethnological difference”’, writes Anne-Marie Sauzeau, they trace the conceptual direction of a Western artist and the ‘traditional craftsmanship of anonymous Afghan women’ (A-M. Sauzeau, quoted in J-C. Ammann, Alighiero Boetti, Catalogo generale, Mappe, Grandi Ricami, Biro, Aerei, 1980-1987, Milan 2015, p. 33). Due to the country’s difficult political situation, this process would become increasingly challenging, particularly following the Soviet invasion that would close Afghanistan’s border for 10 years.
The borders of the works are usually embroidered with fragments from the artist’s favourite poems, from poets such as Foscolo or Diderot, and with his most beloved phrases and concepts such as ‘Order and Disorder’ and, as in the present work, ‘Far Quadrare Tutto’. One such inscription, ‘Le cose nascono dalla necessita e dal caso’ (‘Things are born from necessity and chance’), sheds particular light on various challenges surrounding the production of the Mappe. As suggested by Jean-Christophe Ammann, ‘Boetti’s figurative thought revolves around order and disorder, chance and necessity, research and discovery, the similar and the different. Order is proportional to disorder as chance is proportional to necessity’ (J-C. Ammann, Alighiero Boetti, Catalogo generale, Mappe, Grandi Ricami, Biro, Aerei, 1980-1987, Milan 2015, p. 33). The present work, whose creation was interrupted by the Soviet invasion, may be seen as a living reflection of this concept: a testament to the unpredictability of the political landscape.
With their beautifully coloured flags and borders that record the world as it changed in front of the artist’s eyes, the Mappe – like many of Boetti’s greatest masterpieces – are truly conceptual and collaborative works. As we stand before them, attempting to decrypt their poetic inscriptions or to find our own flag, we become part of Boetti’s ‘game plan’: a captivating long-term project through which he sought to illuminate the beautiful order and disorder of life on earth.