Alighiero e Boetti Sciamano e showman
On the occasion of the 80th anniversary of his birth, a tribute to one of the greatest artists in the 19th century’s Italian and international artistic scene: Alighiero Boetti.
Already in his name, which the artist changes in Alighiero & Boetti in the early 1970s, we perceive the infinite play of mirrors typical of Boetti’s character, engaging the man and the artist, south and north, order and disorder, necessity and chance, spirit and matter.
Alighiero Boetti shapes his masterpieces with the intent to “give life to life” – mettere al mondo il mondo – and he succeeds, precisely because of his being shaman and showman at the same time.
Moving between the stories told by his family, art historians and artists, archive images and colorful pieces of art, this documentary retraces Boetti’s dazzling but short artistic career: his beginnings and the adherence to the Arte Povera movement, the 1970s great creative ferment which saw the birth of most of his masterpieces, his success in the late 1980s and early 1990s, and the posthumous acclamation among the great ones.
The documentary recalls one of Boetti’s most iconic procedures: the square used in his renowned tapestries. Thanks to the animated graphics, the 16 letters forming the name “Alighiero & Boetti” turn into 16 keywords which mark/introduce the chapters in the documentary.
