Alighiero Boetti
Born in Turin in 1940, first gravitating around Arte Povera, he soon departed from it pursuing a completely personal artistic research. From the outset his interest fell on dualistic structures and on the understanding of temporality: in fact, his works included long and laborious techniques (such as ballpoint or embroidered works) and precisely the temporal dimension imposed by the physical realization became one of the components of the work itself. From 1971 Boetti made numerous trips to Afghanistan where he had his famous tapestries made by a group of local embroiderers; he will love the small workshop of Afghan artisans so much that he almost considers it his second studio, until the 1979, the year of the invasion of Soviet troops.
Another prolific theme was the series of pen works: here too the artist, holding the position of director and thinker, he directed a team of young students who made works covered with infinite ink marks on large sheets where from the apparent chaos, after careful analysis, symbols and signs to decode appear. Once the symbolic mechanism is understood, the work becomes understandable and the disorder becomes very precise order.
The constant presence of the dualism of concepts had a clear manifestation from 1968 when the artist began to sign "Alighiero e Boetti" and continued in 1977 with the creation of the work "Gemelli" where the artist himself self-portraying a single photo of himself.
He died on April 24, 1994, in Rome.
Another prolific theme was the series of pen works: here too the artist, holding the position of director and thinker, he directed a team of young students who made works covered with infinite ink marks on large sheets where from the apparent chaos, after careful analysis, symbols and signs to decode appear. Once the symbolic mechanism is understood, the work becomes understandable and the disorder becomes very precise order.
The constant presence of the dualism of concepts had a clear manifestation from 1968 when the artist began to sign "Alighiero e Boetti" and continued in 1977 with the creation of the work "Gemelli" where the artist himself self-portraying a single photo of himself.
He died on April 24, 1994, in Rome.