Tate Modern in London presents Alighiero Boetti. Game Plan on view 28 February–27 May 2012.
Alighiero Boetti, “Mappa,” 1979, Courtesy Gladstone Gallery, New York & Brussels (c) Alighiero Boetti Estate by DACS / SIAE, 2012, courtesy Fondazione Alighiero e Boetti. Photo: Alex Jamison
Alighiero E Boetti (1940–1994) was one of the most important and influential Italian artists of the twentieth century. He was a key member of the Arte Povera group of young Italian artists in the late 1960s which was working in radically new ways using simple materials. This will be the first solo show by an Arte Povera artist at Tate Modern.
Boetti used industrial materials associated with Turin’s booming economy and later made works using postage stamps, biro pens, and magazine covers. His work engaged with the changing geopolitical situation of his time, much of it made on his travels to places such as Ethiopia and Guatemala and Afghanistan. Between 1971 and 1979 he set up a hotel in Kabul as an art project and created large colourful embroideries, the most famous of these were the Mappa, world maps in which each country features the design of its national flag. Highlights include works never seen in the UK such as the iconic Self-Portrait (1993), a life-size bronze cast of the artist hosing his head with a jet of water.
Alighiero Boetti was born in Turin in 1940 and moved in the early 1970s to Rome. He has been the subject of solo exhibitions including at the Kunsthalle Basel (1978), Galleria CIvica d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea, Turin (1996), and the Whitechapel Gallery, London (1999).
Alighiero Boetti: Game Plan is curated at Tate Modern by Mark Godfrey, Curator, Tate Modern with Kasia Redzisz, Assistant Curator, Tate Modern. This exhibition is organised by Tate Modern, the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid, where it will be shown from 5 October 2011 to 5 February 2012, and The Museum of Modern Art, New York, where it will travel in Summer 2012.
For tickets visit www.tate.org.uk/modern/exhibitions/alighieroboetti/tickets or call 020 7887 8888
Supported by The Alighiero Boetti Exhibition Supporters Group, Tate International Council and the Tate Patrons. Media Partner: The Independent.
Tate Modern
Level 4
Bankside
London SE1 9TG
www.tate.org.uk/modern