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拍品专文
This work is registered in the Archivio Alighiero Boetti, Rome, under number 2220.
Executed between 1969 and 1970, Planisfero politico is one of the works that marked the genesis not only of Boetti's entire Mappa series, but also, in its use of drawing and pen-strokes to fill a pre-ordained space, of his biro works.
In Planisfero politico, several of the key themes that have come to define Boetti's works are in clear evidence. Time, flux and change are reflected as much in the borders and flags of the countries as in the process of execution; his fascination with dichotomies is emphasised by the contrast between the monolithic red of the Eastern Bloc, all those Communist flags, to the right and the red, white and occasional blue of the United States and its neighbours. A similar dichotomy exists between the hidden and the concealed, and between the empty and the full: where the Earth is inhabited by Man, we see it filled with colour, whereas an awesome emptiness nonetheless coats the large part of the globe. Perhaps most importantly, though, Planisfero politico reflects Boetti's interest in systems, in ways of viewing and categorising the world.
Prior to more conceptual works such as the Planisfero politico, Boetti had been involved in the general mood and movement of Arte Povera. However, he found that the emphasis on materials and materiality became too much, absorbing all thought. He abandoned his Turin studio, filled with the scrap materials that he had accumulated over the previous years and which had provided the media for his Arte Povera pieces, and turned to new concepts, several of which involved the process of drawing. However, Boetti did not draw freehand or free-style-- he ensured that the subject-matter that he illustrated in this manner was somehow prescribed. One example of this was Dodici forme dal guignio '67. The forms of the title appeared almost abstract, each isolated in a box on a sheet with the date at the top. However, on closer inspection, these reveal themselves to be the outlines of countries that, on the dates in question, were on the front page of a newspaper. The reasons for the presence of these areas-- Northern Ireland, the Middle East and so forth-- on the front pages tended to be violence: 'I was well aware that these drawings did not come out of my imagination but from artillery bombardments, air raids, and diplomatic negotiations' (Boetti, quoted in P. Morsiani, When 1 is 2: The Art of Alighiero e Boetti, exh.cat., Houston, 2002, p. 18). Because of this subject matter, which lurks below the innocuous surface implied by these almost blank sheets and the amoeba-like shapes that adorn them, Dodici forme dal guignio '67 is fuelled by a dark undercurrent.
This is taken to a new extreme by the colourful Planisfero politico. Boetti bought the original map, thereby beginning with a readymade recalling his Arte Povera works of the previous years, and coloured it in with the flags of the nations in a manner that recalls school exercises in geography. Yet the harmless appearance of this action belies the torments and tensions that lie behind the appearances of these flags and the forms of these borders. Looking at the map from today's vantage point, it is clear how many countries have changed, how many borders and regimes have ebbed and flowed, highlighting the state of flux in which the world exists. But it also highlights the vast scale of the human tragedies that are caused by these borders and these flags. In 1969-70, when Planisfero politico was executed, the tension between the Soviet nations and the capitalist West was at its height. The Berlin Wall was less than a decade old and had been rebuilt less than half a decade earlier, sealing the Communists behind their Iron Curtain. In the Planisfero politico, there is something looming about the colossal red mass in the East, a monster gobbling up so much of the territory of the rest of the planet, reflecting not so much Boetti's anxieties, but rather the anxieties of the Western nations who confronted it. Indeed, in the wake of 1968 and all that came with it, Boetti and many of his friends were inclined not to view the political concepts of the West as in keeping with their own ideals and ideas.
By presenting this massive geopolitical situation through coloured crayons, Boetti heightens the tragic yet farcical nature of it all, the intensely arbitrary manner in which individuals are shepherded under flags and doctrines. Viewed from above, from the false perspective provided by the Planisfero politico, these borders and political struggles appear futile and absurd. They are a seemingly irrational system by which Man has divided, organised and categorised the world. The fact that these flags and borders change reflects the fallibility of this human system of organisation, a fact that is thrown into relief by the broad uncoloured expanse of the seas and oceans which remain to some extent free and autonomous. This is a timeless element that resists human domination and quietly surrounds the petty squabbling and ever-changing state of the world of dry land in its constant political flux.
Concepts of time function on several levels in Planisfero politico. On the one hand, the changing regimes reflect the passing of time in a historical sense, but on the other hand the actual work itself bears the evidence of the passing of time during Planisfero politico's execution. The painstaking care with which Boetti has slowly filled in the outlines of the countries with their flags is evident to the naked eye, a physical manifestation of the passing of time that echoes the shifting borders of these nations. This factor of time as a medium in its own right in Boetti's work would come to the fore in his famous project, begun in 1971, to classify the thousand longest rivers in the world, a process that involved ever-changing results in part due to the different means of measuring rivers used by the various specialists whom he consulted, but also by the ever-changing lengths of these rivers as some became drier and others were in spate.
Even before he had coined the phrase mettere al mondo il mondo (to bring the world into the world)-- which later would become his mantra and his motto-- Boetti was doing precisely that. In Planisfero politico, he miniaturised and crystallised vast global concepts and events, presenting the viewer with something that has been in part created by Boetti, and yet which was brought into existence by the world itself, a concept heightened by his use of a readymade planisphere as a base covered with the flags of the nations as a design: 'The greatest joy on earth consists in inventing the world the way it is without inventing anything in the process' (Boetti, quoted in Alighiero Boetti: Mettere al mondo il mondo, exh.cat., Frankfurt, 1998, p. 297).
Executed between 1969 and 1970, Planisfero politico is one of the works that marked the genesis not only of Boetti's entire Mappa series, but also, in its use of drawing and pen-strokes to fill a pre-ordained space, of his biro works.
In Planisfero politico, several of the key themes that have come to define Boetti's works are in clear evidence. Time, flux and change are reflected as much in the borders and flags of the countries as in the process of execution; his fascination with dichotomies is emphasised by the contrast between the monolithic red of the Eastern Bloc, all those Communist flags, to the right and the red, white and occasional blue of the United States and its neighbours. A similar dichotomy exists between the hidden and the concealed, and between the empty and the full: where the Earth is inhabited by Man, we see it filled with colour, whereas an awesome emptiness nonetheless coats the large part of the globe. Perhaps most importantly, though, Planisfero politico reflects Boetti's interest in systems, in ways of viewing and categorising the world.
Prior to more conceptual works such as the Planisfero politico, Boetti had been involved in the general mood and movement of Arte Povera. However, he found that the emphasis on materials and materiality became too much, absorbing all thought. He abandoned his Turin studio, filled with the scrap materials that he had accumulated over the previous years and which had provided the media for his Arte Povera pieces, and turned to new concepts, several of which involved the process of drawing. However, Boetti did not draw freehand or free-style-- he ensured that the subject-matter that he illustrated in this manner was somehow prescribed. One example of this was Dodici forme dal guignio '67. The forms of the title appeared almost abstract, each isolated in a box on a sheet with the date at the top. However, on closer inspection, these reveal themselves to be the outlines of countries that, on the dates in question, were on the front page of a newspaper. The reasons for the presence of these areas-- Northern Ireland, the Middle East and so forth-- on the front pages tended to be violence: 'I was well aware that these drawings did not come out of my imagination but from artillery bombardments, air raids, and diplomatic negotiations' (Boetti, quoted in P. Morsiani, When 1 is 2: The Art of Alighiero e Boetti, exh.cat., Houston, 2002, p. 18). Because of this subject matter, which lurks below the innocuous surface implied by these almost blank sheets and the amoeba-like shapes that adorn them, Dodici forme dal guignio '67 is fuelled by a dark undercurrent.
This is taken to a new extreme by the colourful Planisfero politico. Boetti bought the original map, thereby beginning with a readymade recalling his Arte Povera works of the previous years, and coloured it in with the flags of the nations in a manner that recalls school exercises in geography. Yet the harmless appearance of this action belies the torments and tensions that lie behind the appearances of these flags and the forms of these borders. Looking at the map from today's vantage point, it is clear how many countries have changed, how many borders and regimes have ebbed and flowed, highlighting the state of flux in which the world exists. But it also highlights the vast scale of the human tragedies that are caused by these borders and these flags. In 1969-70, when Planisfero politico was executed, the tension between the Soviet nations and the capitalist West was at its height. The Berlin Wall was less than a decade old and had been rebuilt less than half a decade earlier, sealing the Communists behind their Iron Curtain. In the Planisfero politico, there is something looming about the colossal red mass in the East, a monster gobbling up so much of the territory of the rest of the planet, reflecting not so much Boetti's anxieties, but rather the anxieties of the Western nations who confronted it. Indeed, in the wake of 1968 and all that came with it, Boetti and many of his friends were inclined not to view the political concepts of the West as in keeping with their own ideals and ideas.
By presenting this massive geopolitical situation through coloured crayons, Boetti heightens the tragic yet farcical nature of it all, the intensely arbitrary manner in which individuals are shepherded under flags and doctrines. Viewed from above, from the false perspective provided by the Planisfero politico, these borders and political struggles appear futile and absurd. They are a seemingly irrational system by which Man has divided, organised and categorised the world. The fact that these flags and borders change reflects the fallibility of this human system of organisation, a fact that is thrown into relief by the broad uncoloured expanse of the seas and oceans which remain to some extent free and autonomous. This is a timeless element that resists human domination and quietly surrounds the petty squabbling and ever-changing state of the world of dry land in its constant political flux.
Concepts of time function on several levels in Planisfero politico. On the one hand, the changing regimes reflect the passing of time in a historical sense, but on the other hand the actual work itself bears the evidence of the passing of time during Planisfero politico's execution. The painstaking care with which Boetti has slowly filled in the outlines of the countries with their flags is evident to the naked eye, a physical manifestation of the passing of time that echoes the shifting borders of these nations. This factor of time as a medium in its own right in Boetti's work would come to the fore in his famous project, begun in 1971, to classify the thousand longest rivers in the world, a process that involved ever-changing results in part due to the different means of measuring rivers used by the various specialists whom he consulted, but also by the ever-changing lengths of these rivers as some became drier and others were in spate.
Even before he had coined the phrase mettere al mondo il mondo (to bring the world into the world)-- which later would become his mantra and his motto-- Boetti was doing precisely that. In Planisfero politico, he miniaturised and crystallised vast global concepts and events, presenting the viewer with something that has been in part created by Boetti, and yet which was brought into existence by the world itself, a concept heightened by his use of a readymade planisphere as a base covered with the flags of the nations as a design: 'The greatest joy on earth consists in inventing the world the way it is without inventing anything in the process' (Boetti, quoted in Alighiero Boetti: Mettere al mondo il mondo, exh.cat., Frankfurt, 1998, p. 297).