.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
In this beautiful, polychromatic arazzo Alighiero Boetti presents the viewer with a hypnotic visual riddle, as diferent languages, scripts, letters and cultures become interwoven in an intricate system that plays with the dual concepts of logic and chaos. Inviting the viewer into an intricate cryptographic game in which the artist hides a collection of his favourite sayings, truisms, and aphorisms, Untitled embodies one of Boetti’s most important guiding principles – his belief that the unity of the world rests on a delicate balance of ordine e disordine (order and disorder).
As with all of Boetti’s arazzi, the work comprises of a multi-coloured grid of twenty-five by twenty-five squares, the majority of which are overlaid with a contrastingly coloured letter. Using upper-case characters only in order to emphasise the strict geometry of their shapes, the artist appears to have arranged the letters at random, with their order producing no obviously legible words or phrases when read in a traditional manner. By splitting each of these texts into their own constituent parts - the individual letters which together give them meaning – Boetti exposes language as a sophisticated but nonetheless artificial systematic arrangement of form. As he explained, ‘I am interested in primary matters, such as the alphabet, the map, the newspaper, among other things owing to the spring which thus tautens between order and disorder’ (Boetti, quoted in L. Rolf, Alighiero Boetti: mettere al mondo il mondo, Cantz, 1998, p. 29).
However, concealed behind the colourful multiplicity of the squares and letters there exists a highly regulated internal system, which the artist uses to encipher some of his favourite statements and axioms. Embedded within the pattern are such typically Boetti phrases as ‘Dare tempo altempo’ (give it time), ‘Avere sete di fuoco’ (to be thirsty of fire) and ‘Incontri e scontri’ (encounters and clashes), as well as semi-instructive directions for reading the work, such as ‘Leggere verticale’ (read vertically). Boetti arranges these phrases in individual sub-squares of sixteen equal parts, with each letter arranged to read from top to bottom and not left to right as is typical in Western culture. In this way, the arazzo straddles the border between legibility and illegibility, its letters clearly identifiable but its coded messages hidden to all but those familiar with Boetti’s complex system.
The date of the work’s conception, the 29th of May, 1989, is spelt out in Italian across two intersecting lines of squares at the centre of the canvas, which cut through the tapestry in a linear, cross-like formation, dissecting it into four equal sections. At the centre of each of these quadrants, a single sub-square disrupts the rigidity of the arazzo system, as the artist introduces the soft, flowing script of a Farsi text to the composition. Read from right to left, the Farsi appears much freer, more lyrical and almost calligraphic in character, flowing across the individual borders of the coloured squares and acting like a visual counterpoint to the rigorous arrangement of the Latin alphabet.
The contents of the Farsi messages were typically determined by Boetti’s Afghani collaborators, highlighting the role of the traditional craftswomen who were responsible for creating the tapestries. Here, the text can be translated to reveal a romantic statement about the beauty of their homeland, the simplicity of their way of life, and also the presence of the artist in the tapestry’s creation: ‘The simple life is beautiful if we are in the nature of Afghanistan, everything smiles at us so we must live in Afghanistan because its people like the simple life and the nature, embroidery by Alighiero Boetti.’
These passages of Farsi exist outside of the highly controlled system created by Boetti, and allow an element of chance to enter the artistic process. Boetti never met the women responsible for the creation of his designs, as they lived in an extremely private feminine universe, protected by tradition and cultural mores. By relinquishing control of this aspect of the arazzo to the embroiderers, Boetti grants these traditionally invisible craftswomen a new presence in the work, highlighting their integral contribution to the realisation of the artwork, and giving them an increased level of artistic autonomy within the design.
When considered in relation to the date of the tapestry’s creation, meanwhile, these passages of Farsi text may provide a unique insight into the difficult choice Boetti’s collaborators were facing at this time. For almost a decade, the Soviet – Afghan war had forced thousands of people to flee their homes and seek refuge in neighbouring Peshawar, Pakistan. With the conflict nearing an end and Soviet troops preparing to pull out of the country, many of the people involved in creating Boetti’s arazzi were considering whether or not to return to their homeland. Thus, the messages may be read as a hopeful statement regarding the uncertain future which lay ahead for the communities of embroiderers and their families, as they prepared to return to an Afghanistan radically altered by years of war and occupation.
As with all of Boetti’s arazzi, the work comprises of a multi-coloured grid of twenty-five by twenty-five squares, the majority of which are overlaid with a contrastingly coloured letter. Using upper-case characters only in order to emphasise the strict geometry of their shapes, the artist appears to have arranged the letters at random, with their order producing no obviously legible words or phrases when read in a traditional manner. By splitting each of these texts into their own constituent parts - the individual letters which together give them meaning – Boetti exposes language as a sophisticated but nonetheless artificial systematic arrangement of form. As he explained, ‘I am interested in primary matters, such as the alphabet, the map, the newspaper, among other things owing to the spring which thus tautens between order and disorder’ (Boetti, quoted in L. Rolf, Alighiero Boetti: mettere al mondo il mondo, Cantz, 1998, p. 29).
However, concealed behind the colourful multiplicity of the squares and letters there exists a highly regulated internal system, which the artist uses to encipher some of his favourite statements and axioms. Embedded within the pattern are such typically Boetti phrases as ‘Dare tempo altempo’ (give it time), ‘Avere sete di fuoco’ (to be thirsty of fire) and ‘Incontri e scontri’ (encounters and clashes), as well as semi-instructive directions for reading the work, such as ‘Leggere verticale’ (read vertically). Boetti arranges these phrases in individual sub-squares of sixteen equal parts, with each letter arranged to read from top to bottom and not left to right as is typical in Western culture. In this way, the arazzo straddles the border between legibility and illegibility, its letters clearly identifiable but its coded messages hidden to all but those familiar with Boetti’s complex system.
The date of the work’s conception, the 29th of May, 1989, is spelt out in Italian across two intersecting lines of squares at the centre of the canvas, which cut through the tapestry in a linear, cross-like formation, dissecting it into four equal sections. At the centre of each of these quadrants, a single sub-square disrupts the rigidity of the arazzo system, as the artist introduces the soft, flowing script of a Farsi text to the composition. Read from right to left, the Farsi appears much freer, more lyrical and almost calligraphic in character, flowing across the individual borders of the coloured squares and acting like a visual counterpoint to the rigorous arrangement of the Latin alphabet.
The contents of the Farsi messages were typically determined by Boetti’s Afghani collaborators, highlighting the role of the traditional craftswomen who were responsible for creating the tapestries. Here, the text can be translated to reveal a romantic statement about the beauty of their homeland, the simplicity of their way of life, and also the presence of the artist in the tapestry’s creation: ‘The simple life is beautiful if we are in the nature of Afghanistan, everything smiles at us so we must live in Afghanistan because its people like the simple life and the nature, embroidery by Alighiero Boetti.’
These passages of Farsi exist outside of the highly controlled system created by Boetti, and allow an element of chance to enter the artistic process. Boetti never met the women responsible for the creation of his designs, as they lived in an extremely private feminine universe, protected by tradition and cultural mores. By relinquishing control of this aspect of the arazzo to the embroiderers, Boetti grants these traditionally invisible craftswomen a new presence in the work, highlighting their integral contribution to the realisation of the artwork, and giving them an increased level of artistic autonomy within the design.
When considered in relation to the date of the tapestry’s creation, meanwhile, these passages of Farsi text may provide a unique insight into the difficult choice Boetti’s collaborators were facing at this time. For almost a decade, the Soviet – Afghan war had forced thousands of people to flee their homes and seek refuge in neighbouring Peshawar, Pakistan. With the conflict nearing an end and Soviet troops preparing to pull out of the country, many of the people involved in creating Boetti’s arazzi were considering whether or not to return to their homeland. Thus, the messages may be read as a hopeful statement regarding the uncertain future which lay ahead for the communities of embroiderers and their families, as they prepared to return to an Afghanistan radically altered by years of war and occupation.