波艾提於1940年出生於意大利都靈，是「貧窮藝術」運動極具影響力的成員。直至20世紀70年代，他脫離了當時盛行的集體運動，轉而對時間、空間、語言、數字、文字遊戲、類別、協同合作等方面展開獨特探索，由此創作出二十世紀最具吸引力和激進的概念藝術作品之一。

Born in Turin, Italy, in 1940, Alighiero Boetti was an influential member of the Arte Povera movement, though by the 1970s diverged from the collective movements of the time and forged his own unique explorations of time, space, language, mathematics, wordplay, classification and collaboration, producing one of the most fascinating and radically conceptual bodies of work of the 20th century.

1971年，波艾提第一次遊歷阿富汗，就被當地的風景和文化所吸引。此後的10年，他大部分時間都在當地進行創作及與繡工合作。他曾委托當地女繡工繡製他的馬賽克狀字母方塊刺繡、地圖刺繡和掛毯刺繡等。起初制作地點在阿富汗的喀布爾，1979年蘇聯入侵後，則轉移到巴基斯坦的白沙瓦（彼時那裏是阿富汗民眾的避難所）。波艾提會為繡工提供設計圖樣，而將顏色的選擇和其他隨機的詮釋和花紋全權交給繡工。

Boetti first traveled to Afghanistan in 1971, where he became enamoured with the landscape and culture, and would spend much of the decade working and collaborating there. He commissioned his mosaic-like word grids, geopolitical maps and various tapestries to be embroidered by local Afghan craftswomen, first in Kabul, and following the Soviet invasion of 1979, in Peshawar, Pakistan, where many had taken refuge. Boetti would provide the blueprint for these works while he left the selection of colours and other serendipitous interpretations and flourishes up to the weavers.

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作為一位喜好流浪、一直在路上的旅行者，波艾提常常前往阿富汗、危地馬拉、埃塞俄比亞、日本、摩洛哥、巴基斯坦，對航空旅行的歷史和飛機圖像非常著迷。1977年，他與意大利建築師、漫畫家吉多·富加（Guido Fuga）合作，創作了一幅大型的三聯畫，以藍色水彩天空為背景，透過高度精細的筆觸描繪設計各異、比例不一、飛行方向不同的飛機。波艾提甚是傾心這件作品，以至日後制作了不同尺寸的相近的作品——他先在紙頁上繪制出飛機的形態，再讓助理用圓珠筆、墨水和水彩填充飛機周圍的區域，由此制作出數量龐大的「Aerei」系列作品。

A nomadic, intrepid traveler who frequently visited Afghanistan, Guatemala, Ethiopia, Japan, Morocco and Pakistan, Boetti was fascinated by the history of air travel and aircraft imagery. In 1977, Boetti collaborated with Guido Fuga, an Italian architect and cartoonist, to produce a large-scale triptych depicting highly-detailed aeroplanes, of varying design, scale and flying direction, teeming against a blue watercolour sky, and was so enamoured of this work that he reproduced it, in varying sizes, with only the forms of the aeroplanes registering on the sheets and then had assistants fill in the areas surrounding the aeroplanes’ outlines, in biro, ink and watercolour, resulting in a broad body of work known as the Aerei series.

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布朗畫廊香港空間呈獻意大利觀概念藝術大師阿里基羅·波艾提（Alighiero Boetti，1940-1994年）的個展。是次展覽是畫廊2012年於香港空間為波艾提舉辦首次個展並廣受好評後，睽違9年於香港舉行的第二次藝術家個展。布朗畫廊在過去的二十多年中一直致力於展示波艾提的作品，迄今已舉辦六次個展和多次群展，彰顯畫廊在戰後意大利藝術方面的濃厚興趣和專業知識。此次展覽匯聚波艾提創作生涯中各個時期的代表作，包括「Arazzi」（字母格紋）、「Tuttos」（萬物）系列刺繡，「Aerei」（飛機）、「Faccine」（面孔）、「Biro」（圓珠筆）等紙上實驗作品，以及「Tappeti」（牆紙）系列掛毯和繡織地毯。

Ben Brown Fine Arts is presenting a comprehensive exhibition of Alighiero Boetti (1940-1994) at the Hong Kong gallery. This will be the Italian conceptual master’s second solo show in Hong Kong, following his highly acclaimed first exhibition at the Hong Kong gallery in 2012. Ben Brown Fine Arts has exhibited the work of Alighiero Boetti for the last two decades, with six solo exhibitions and numerous group shows, highlighting our depth of interest and expertise in 20th century post-war Italian art. This exhibition brings together iconic examples from various periods of Boetti’s oeuvre, including embroidered Arazzi and Tutto; Aerei, Faccine, Biro and other experimental works on paper; and a rare rug (Tappeti) and kilim.

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阿里基羅•波艾提
ALIGHIERO BOETTI
Date:
2021.3.6 – 4.10
Venue:
布朗畫廊（香港）
香港黃竹坑業發街1號The Factory 202室
Ben Brown Fine Arts Hong Kong
202 The Factory, 1 Yip Fat Street Wong Chuk Hang, Hong Kong

Image courtesy of Ben Brown Fine Arts