joseph scissorhands: Alighiero Boetti Mappe

Sunday 19 March 2023

Alighiero Boetti Mappe

Alighiero Boetti - Mappa, 1993

Readers familiar with my work will know how much I love a good map (here, here, and here), and if the map happens to be a vintage piece with beautiful graphics and typography on good paper then so much the better. So it was with a sense of eager anticipation that I visited Robilant + Voena to see a series of iconic, embroidered mappe by artist Alighiero Boetti (1940-1994). There are six mappe on display all from private collections of the 150 created by the artist in collaboration with groups of Afghan women embroiderers. Despite the undisputed skill of the needlework and colour choices, certain flags are subject to the unconscious errors of the embroiderers who lacked knowledge of geographical borders and national flags. Boetti welcomed these elements of chance as well as the interventions of political events which leave the maps as time capsules with shifted geo-political borders and changed symbolism of the flags of some countries. I was intrigued by the colour choices of the women embroidering the maps, and surprised at just how strong and vibrant some of the colours of the threads remain. I enjoyed the typographical borders of the maps as much too. They are combinations of Italian phrases devised by Boetti, and sayings in Farsi which were added by the Afghan embroiderers. The type on some borders is starkly black and white in contrast to the rich colours of the mappe, or just as multi-coloured and diverse on other mappe. As well as the Mappe series, Boetti employed the Afghan embroiderers in his Arazzi and Tutti series.