Following its success in London, Alighiero Boetti Mappe in our New York gallery bringstogether five of the artist's iconic embroidered maps, all from private collections. The exhibition offers arare opportunity to see extraordinary examples of Boetti's seminal mappa series, dating from 1978 to1994. Individually, these maps offer a snapshot of time and place; together, they chart a geo-politicalhistory of the late twentieth century and raise questions about authorship, agency and our understandingof the world.
As a collective entity, the mappe of Alighiero Boetti (1940–1994) encapsulate the essence of an artistwhose practice was simultaneously conceptual, collaborative, playful and revealing. Famously stating thathe 'invented nothing', Boetti used the existing framework of the world map to initiate the creation ofaround 150 embroidered maps, each reflecting a specific geo-political reality from its moment ofproduction.
From 1971 until his death in 1994, Boetti produced his mappe, commissioned from groups of femaleAfghan embroiderers. These women in turn shaped the visual outcomes of the mappe through theirskilled craftsmanship, fine selection of colours, and unconscious errors – being unfamiliar with the visualcodification of world geography into countries, each one designed with its national flag.
The intervention of time and unforeseen elements of chance have also shaped the appearance of the maps– uncontrollable factors that Boetti welcomed and indeed encouraged, in the mappe as in many worksacross his oeuvre. While influencing the visual details of each mappa at the time of making, namelychanges to flags and borders, time continues to transform the meaning of the mappe as contemporaryevents affect our understanding of the world.
The five mappe in this exhibition were made across a period of more than fifteen years, spanning threedecades during which the global geopolitical situation was in flux. Each tapestry is unique, a testament tothe skill and painstaking efforts of the women who embroidered them, and a record of the internationalframework at their time of creation. The borders–combinations of Italian phrases devised by Boetti, andanecdotes in Farsi contributed by the Afghan embroiderers–further distinguish each mappa, giving voiceto the authors of their creation and telling the story of the context in which they were made.
Overall, these five mappe are magnificent examples of one Alighiero Boetti's most notable creations, atestament to an artist whose vision challenged accepted truths through simple ideas, questioning ourperceptions and throwing light upon the ephemeral structures of civilisation.
Robilant+Voena is publishing a book on the occasion of the exhibition, to be released in early summer2023.
Press release courtesy Robilant+Voena.
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