In the British capital, an exhibition of Italian artist, his work in the past on the way to the arte povera conceptualism and who adored the game of all kinds

Tate Modern, London, February 28 - May 27, 2012

• 

Alighieri Boetti (Alighiero Boetti), born in 1940 in Turin, joined the participants at the beginning of the famous Italian movement arte povera, however, left him almost immediately after it began to gain popularity - despite that the criticism was predicted to him the title of leader of the masters of "poor art».

Boetti launched into free-swimming and experiments: started to pull on stretchers camouflage fabric, anticipating, among other things, late Warhol paintings , hung on the walls instead of painting the window frames, creating a unique "view anywhere", worked with cardboard rolls and remnants of building materials, and left an inscription on the wet concrete. He played in the words and figures, needlework, and chess, "juggling" of letters, postcards and stamps , was fond of numerology and psychology, is compared with the Chinese "Book of Changes", revered Zen Buddhism and poetry of Sufism.

artist who openly admit to my own laziness, created, however, a large number works of art - created with the help of friends, pupils, students and Afghan embroiderers, finally shaking the dominant for a long time in Western art concept of the individual author, the bomb planted under which even Marcel Duchamp (Marcel Duchamp).

Alighieri Boetti I'm soaking up the sun in Turin on January 19, 1969 Concrete Source: guardian.co.uk

Alighieri Boetti Guatemala. In 1974 Source: guardian.co.uk

Dissolution very organic shapes of the author occurred in Central Asia, where the collective creativity in contrast to the individualistic Western culture - the usual thing. Boetti loved to travel, and in particular he was fond of Kabul, who first visited in 1971. He even founded the hotel in the city and continued his visits until the Soviet invasion of the country in 1979. critics interpret as a separate hotel Boetti work of art, an early example of work in the spirit of the relativistic aesthetics. However, a significant role in the artist's love for Afghanistan and the history of the hotel has played all of exacerbated passion for drugs, and that is important, and the family tree Boetti.

On the opened yesterday at London's Tate Modern museum exhibition, entitled "The Game Plan", a portrait painter Pietro Boetti Gallina (Pietro Gallina) positioned next to the curators written in 1769, a portrait of one of the ancestors of the artist, Giambattista Boetti. Boetti- Jr., probably took the spirit of adventure and iskatelstva of his legendary ancestor, who, according to various sources, was a Dominican monk, while the Italian spy, during the mission to Constantinople, converted to Islam, changed his name to Sheikh Mansour, and later became the leader of the Chechen rebellion in Russia Empire, the reign of Catherine II. Evidence of this story surfaced only in the XIX century, and they are hard to find it completely credible, but it is "Sheikh Mansour," awakened from Boetti interest in Afghanistan, where the artist eventually with the help of local seamstresses created his most famous work - Embroidered political map of the world, the so-called «Mappa». Boetti does not interfere in the creative process, limiting the general directions, and even allowed to leave the Afghan embroidered at the edges of cards touching filament inscriptions like: "This world map patiently created Afghan women».

Alighieri Boetti Ping-Pong. 1967 Source: guardian.co.uk

The "map" lasted from the early '70s until his death in 1994. Each next card capture took place in the world geopolitical changes, such as the revolution in Africa, the collapse of the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia. After the invasion of Soviet troops in Afghanistan work were established in Iran, and later - in Pakistan, the Afghan-refugee women already. Maps Boetti - stunning, incredibly sad things, and the exhibition at the Tate Modern is worth a visit if only for the room in which they are displayed.

Boetti later continued his experiments with embroidery, using woven to create their works of the most unexpected subjects - from everyday items such as glasses to weird dancing monkeys, and a list of the world's longest rivers. This unsuccessful attempt to capture the "history of the world" with an ephemeral art as embroidery, not simply an exercise in inventing absurd objects, but also the anthem of perseverance - the quality, in the absence of which the artist himself confessed, but the presence of which in others he has always admired and enjoyed success. Perhaps, however, that this quality to it and was not required. At least he saw the role of the artist in another.

This is evidenced by the last self-portrait Boetti (and also his first work in bronze), depicting the artist, whose head is pouring water from a hose. Head sculpture is heated so that the water coming into contact with it, turns into steam - so irrepressible Italian makes it clear that in his mind swarmed so many ideas that sometimes it would be nice to cool down.

Alighieri Boetti Twins. 1968 Source: guardian.co.uk

Alighieri Boetti column. In 1968 Source: guardian.co.uk

Boetti thought a lot about self-presentation: he loved the idea of ​​"twinning" and even came up with a nickname Alighieri and Boetti , who "shared his half," turning to the two people. So he painted himself in the famous picture "Gemini", which depicted him and his alter ego, hand in hand. Boetti called a "shaman, showman," emphasizing the difference between these two essences, one of which - "divine shaman," began to see clearly the depth of life, the other - "showman" who entertains the audience funny tricks of art.

Alighieri Boetti aircraft. 1989 Source: guardian.co.uk

Alighieri Boetti Map Source: guardian.co.uk