Alighiero Boetti

Acquired directly from the artist by the present owner in 1988

San Benedetto del Tronto, Palazzo Bice Piacentini, Palazzina Azzurra, A.B.O., Le Arti della Critica, 2001, p. XVI, illustrated in colour

Colour: The colours in the catalogue illustration are fairly accurate, although the overall tonality is slightly richer and deeper in the original, with the red tending more towards London Bus red. Condition: This work is in very good condition and mounted on canvas.
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This work is registered in the Archivio Alighiero Boetti, Rome, under number 4938 and is accompanied by a photo-certificate of authenticity

The genesis of the Mappe del Mondo series can be traced back to 1967, when Alighiero Boetti started working on 'Dodici Forme dal Giugno '67 (1967-1971)'. In this group of works the artist highlighted political power formations and disasters by reworking cartographic drawings selected from the newspaper La Stampa. Subsequently, Boetti started working on more generic maps of the world, using books and educational maps for primary schools as source material. On these the artist allowed himself minimal creative input; colouring and patterning the countries with the shade of their respective flags. In these "Planisfero Politico" works Boetti expresses his interest in the artificial man-made way in which divisions are created, highlighting their arbitrary and often problematic nature.

Starting in 1971, Boetti sent pre-designs for the embroidered Mappe to Afghanistan to be produced by Afghan women. The realisation of the maps was conceived by the artist as a collaboration, one in which he would generate the idea and general layout, and the local artisans executing the work would choose which colours to use and which script to frame the work with. Boetti embraced the plurality of this creative evolution and always considered suggestions from those who worked with him.  He said of the creative process, "Once the underlying idea, the concept, exists, everything that remains follows and is no longer a matter of choice..." (cited in Alberto Boatto, Alighiero e Boetti, Ravenna 1984, p. 122).

In the designs, each national territory is represented by its own flag, the countries coagulating to embody shifting political movements and ideas. By reducing individual countries to their flags, Boetti denies the diversity implicit within countries' borders and implies instead a communality in the feeling of national identity showing hope for 'a future of reason and mutual understanding.' By creating multiple versions of the maps, the artist's intention was to remain true to the world as it was evolving, updating the designs as the world's circumstances changed. As such, the series provides an extraordinary testament to political geography from 1971 to the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 and the historic fragmentation of the Soviet Union.  

In the present work, the rich blue shade of the sea creates the backdrop to an explosion of colours and shapes, with the various countries' flags manipulated to fit within their borders, allowing the composition to describe the world as it was at that moment in time. On the top and bottom is Farsi text juxtaposed with the Italian geometric text on the horizontal edges. By merging these two languages and scripts, the artist acknowledges the importance of both and pays homage to the Afghan tradition and history.

In appearance colourful and child-like, a deeper analysis of the Mappa unveils layers of meaning implicit in the language, composition and structure chosen by the artist. Loaded with references to national identity, contemporary politics and concepts of territory, the Mappa embodies Boetti's fascination with cultural 'otherness', while simultaneously providing the viewer with a snapshot of a changing world seen through the artist's eyes.