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Lot Essay
“…each one is different, with different colours, and depending on the style of the woman making it. So it's neither an original work, nor a multiple. These works are part of a new category... Someone told me I'd produced the first popular conceptual image”—Alighiero Boetti
(A. Boetti, quoted in “Afghanistan,” interview with N. Bourriaud, Documents, No. 1, Oct. 1992, p. 52).
Alighiero Boetti presents the viewer with a complex visual riddle embroidered across two polychromatic arazzo, tapestries with a message that tumbles down the length of the fabric. Within the seemingly random field of colored squares and individual letters, the artist conceals a series of sayings or dictums to create an intricate cryptographic game for his viewers to solve. The letters form a phrase which are then interwoven into an intricate sequence that plays with the space between the image and the word, the difference between spoken and written language, and legibility and translation. As with all of Boetti's arazzi, these two examples are composed of a multi-colored grid, sixteen squares down by four squares across. Each unit contains a letter embroidered in a bright, bold color overlaid atop another equally saturated block. Only upper-case characters have been used to emphasize the strict geometry of the letter’s shapes. It may appear that the artist has arranged the letters at random, with their order producing no obviously legible words or phrases when read in a traditional manner. However, concealed behind the colorful multiplicity of the squares and letters there exists a highly regulated internal system that the artist uses to encipher some of his favorite statements and axioms. Embedded within the tapestry, the title phrase runs down the length of the fabric to begin again at the top of each column. But rather than a straightforward transcription of the phrase “Una Parola al vento due parole al vento tre parole al vento 100 parole al vento” [One word to the wind, two words to the wind, three words to the wind, 100 words to the wind], all the spaces between words have been eliminated and the phrase stops and starts emphasizing the rich intonations of the Italian language. For instance, the last half of the word parola (Italian for word) is repeated three times rola rola rola disturbing the sense of the phrase while imparting a poetic lyricism. In this way, the arazzo straddles the border between legibility and illegibility, as only those viewers familiar with Boetti's system are able to decipher the coded messages.
Alighiero Boetti's arazzi works were created in conjunction with traditional Afghani embroiders, first in Kabul and then, following the outbreak of war in the region, with refugees living in Peshawar, Pakistan. These contributions exist outside of the highly controlled system created by Boetti, and allow an element of chance to enter the artistic process. By relinquishing control of their creation to the embroiderers, Boetti grants these traditionally invisible craftsmen a new presence within the composition and celebrates their increased level of artistic autonomy within the design.
(A. Boetti, quoted in “Afghanistan,” interview with N. Bourriaud, Documents, No. 1, Oct. 1992, p. 52).
Alighiero Boetti presents the viewer with a complex visual riddle embroidered across two polychromatic arazzo, tapestries with a message that tumbles down the length of the fabric. Within the seemingly random field of colored squares and individual letters, the artist conceals a series of sayings or dictums to create an intricate cryptographic game for his viewers to solve. The letters form a phrase which are then interwoven into an intricate sequence that plays with the space between the image and the word, the difference between spoken and written language, and legibility and translation. As with all of Boetti's arazzi, these two examples are composed of a multi-colored grid, sixteen squares down by four squares across. Each unit contains a letter embroidered in a bright, bold color overlaid atop another equally saturated block. Only upper-case characters have been used to emphasize the strict geometry of the letter’s shapes. It may appear that the artist has arranged the letters at random, with their order producing no obviously legible words or phrases when read in a traditional manner. However, concealed behind the colorful multiplicity of the squares and letters there exists a highly regulated internal system that the artist uses to encipher some of his favorite statements and axioms. Embedded within the tapestry, the title phrase runs down the length of the fabric to begin again at the top of each column. But rather than a straightforward transcription of the phrase “Una Parola al vento due parole al vento tre parole al vento 100 parole al vento” [One word to the wind, two words to the wind, three words to the wind, 100 words to the wind], all the spaces between words have been eliminated and the phrase stops and starts emphasizing the rich intonations of the Italian language. For instance, the last half of the word parola (Italian for word) is repeated three times rola rola rola disturbing the sense of the phrase while imparting a poetic lyricism. In this way, the arazzo straddles the border between legibility and illegibility, as only those viewers familiar with Boetti's system are able to decipher the coded messages.
Alighiero Boetti's arazzi works were created in conjunction with traditional Afghani embroiders, first in Kabul and then, following the outbreak of war in the region, with refugees living in Peshawar, Pakistan. These contributions exist outside of the highly controlled system created by Boetti, and allow an element of chance to enter the artistic process. By relinquishing control of their creation to the embroiderers, Boetti grants these traditionally invisible craftsmen a new presence within the composition and celebrates their increased level of artistic autonomy within the design.