Alighiero Boetti

Alighiero Fabrizio Boetti (1940 to 1994) was an Italian artist born in Turin who died in Rome. He was associated with the Arte Povera movement before disassociating himself from it in 1972. He is most celebrated for a series of embroidered world maps, Mappa, created from 1971 until his death, each map showing every country filled with its own national flag; the maps were embroidered by artisans in Afghanistan and Pakistan and changed over the two decades as national borders and flags shifted. He renamed himself Alighiero e Boetti, using the word for and to embody the dualities running through his work, such as the individual set against society and order set against disorder.