Alighiero Boetti

Private Collection, Venice (acquired directly from the artist)
Private Collection, Italy
Sale: Sotheby's, London, Contemporary Art Evening Auction, 28 June 2010, Lot 6
Acquired directly from the above by the present owner

Colour: The colours in the catalogue illustration are fairly accurate, although the white tones tend more towards cream in the original. Condition: This work is in very good condition. Close inspection reveals a few raised thread ends in places, which are inherent to the artist's choice of media and working practice. The thread has faded slightly with time.
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

Executed in 1983-4, Mappa is a strikingly rendered example of Boetti’s most celebrated and important series. Combining the textural appeal of silky embroidery thread with an idiosyncratic patchwork of brightly-coloured national emblems, Mappa evinces Boetti’s ability to produce objects of beauty via global networks of artistic activity. Conceived of by Boetti and later fabricated by Afghan embroiderers in Kabul, and then Peshawar after the Russian invasion, the Mappa series stems from Boetti’s thorough commitment to embracing elements of chance, cosmopolitanism, and collaboration.
In 1971, upon his first trip to Afghanistan, Boetti arranged for canvases bearing the outlines of a world map to be colourfully embroidered at the Royal School of Embroidery in Kabul. But the fine Bokhara stitch and thin thread employed there demanded incredibly long production times, so Boetti established a new system in partnership with his Afghan friend Dastaghir. He relayed instructions to Fatimah and Habibah, each themselves manager of a team of female embroiderers, neither of whom had met Boetti. Out of this structure, Boetti formed warm friendships with Dastaghir and the men with whom he communicated directly in Afghanistan, but remained isolated from the women who stitched his works. This effective separation between plan and execution with the Mappe was an essential conceptual experiment.  
For curator Hans Ulrich Obrist, a life-long friend of the artist, Boetti’s cosmopolitan approach to art production was prescient. He has recalled: “Boetti told me on [our] first encounter that in our time the art world would become much more of a polyphony of centres. It would go beyond Western art. He made me understand that globalisation would change the art world forever; yet at the same time we had a responsibility not just to embrace it, but to work with globalisation in the way that it produces difference by resisting homogenisation. You see this idea in his maps” (Hans Ulrich Obrist, "One of the Most Important Days in My Life: Alighiero Boetti at Tate Modern," Tate Etc., Issue 24, Spring 2012, available online).
In 1969, Boetti first took a printed world map and decorated the countries with the hues and patterns of their respective flags, creating the first Mappa on paper, Planisfero Politico. Fascinated by the human desire to demarcate and classify the earth, Boetti would go on to expand the concept of Planisfero Politico into his world-renowned Mappe. The series bears witness to the protean nature of political geography: borders and national symbols from 1971 to the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 metamorphose, visualising the historic dissolution of the Soviet Union. As observed by Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev, Boetti's series of Mappe "act as a metaphor for the fluidity of human relationships and communities" (Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev, Arte Povera, London 1999, p. 85).
Mappa thereby expresses a dichotomy between the imperceptible tectonic changes that naturally form our continental borders, and the mercurial constructions of humanity. "In the Map, you see Nature but also how people have their dramatic influence, creating states and flags" (Jean Christophe Amman in: Exhibition Catalogue, Turin, Castello di Rivoli Museo d'Arte Contemporanea, Arte Povera in collection, 2000-1, p. 130). By laying bare the physiognomy of the earth, Boetti interrogates the supposed significance of human organization, or what Dan Fox describes as: "the inherent absurdity of imposing abstract human concepts upon the natural world, as if our efforts might reveal some Platonic essence in the landscape or in the passage of time" (Dan Fox, Alighiero e Boetti, London 2000, pp. 105-06). Ultimately, the kaleidoscopic ensemble of various countries’ flags manipulated to fit within their borders achieves a joyful explosion of colours and shapes. Underpinned by a rich blue shade of sea, Mappa expresses the creative potential and political power that Boetti found in the map of the world.