Boetti, Alighiero

Arte Povera et photocopies. Boetti fut fasciné par les possibilités des photocopieurs Xerox, la photocopie étant l'un des moyens "pauvres", comme le stylo à bille, les timbres postaux ou les broderies. En cela, il suit la trace du Xerox book publié en 1968, constitué uniquement d'œuvres conçues pour être photocopiées par Carl Andre, Robert Barry, Douglas Huebler, Joseph Kosuth, Sol LeWitt, Robert Morris et Lawrence Weiner. En 1974, le photographe japonais Moriyama publia aussi un livre photocopié, Another Country in New York.

"Boetti's better-known series of works, such as his maps and embroideries, reveal none of his fascination with technology and communication. As far back as 1969, when photocopiers had just been invented but had not yet found their way into homes and offices, he was making photocopies of all kinds of different objects and materials, pushing the boundaries of the new medium with his unique mix of conceptual rigour and childlike playfulness.

As soon as photocopiers became everyday objects, Boetti made sure he was never too far from one, installing machines in his studio in Rome and his country home in Todi, where he spent hours on end making photocopies with his young daughter Agata. These sessions included attempts to photocopy live baby ducks, much to Agata's delight, as well as drops of rain as they fell from the sky. The latter actually worked, although it was short-lived as the rain, quickly and inevitably, seeped into the machine, and it broke down. [...] "There is a democratic idea behind this process," Obrist says. "It was very much an open work, an open system in which he incorporated all kinds of photocopied material, such as newspaper and magazine clippings, fragments of his personal life, artistic inspirations, contributions from artist friends of his, photocopies of works by artists from previous generations and, of course, all kinds of research documents related to his other work." The original bound volumes will punctuate the installation, which is made up of photocopies of the original photocopies, a notion that Boetti would have most likely enjoyed. Expect to get lost in an A4-sized world in which images of his family and private life coexist with images of the first war in Iraq, a silhouette of Prince in concert, the artist Mario Schifano on the pages of Vogue, the wedding of Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer, and adverts for cigarettes. Somewhere within the installation is a photocopy of the show's title, handwritten by Boetti." (Ermanno Rivetti, "Monochrome mania: Boetti's obsession with the Xerox machine", in The Art News Paper, 30 avril 2017).