Alighiero Boetti’s Mappa (1979) belongs to his celebrated series of embroidered world maps, in which each nation is meticulously rendered in the colours and emblems of its flag. This example is distinguished by its early date and is among the few, and highly sought after, Mappe conceived in Kabul, Afghanistan, by Afghan artisans, before production moved to Peshawar, Pakistan, following the Soviet invasion of 1979.

The embroidered inscription running along the border reads: “Alighiero e Boetti a Kabul nella primavera del mille novecento settanta nove stanco di felicità e infelicità (EIOU)”, which translates as: “Alighiero and Boetti in Kabul in the spring of one thousand nine hundred and seventy-nine, tired of happiness and unhappiness (EIOU)”. The phrase encapsulates the artist’s characteristic play with duality, authorship and invented language.

The Mappe reflect the shifting geopolitical landscape of the late twentieth century while preserving the human rhythm of their making. Each work required up to a year, and sometimes longer, to complete. Approximately 160 Mappe are known to exist, varying in scale and detail. In Mappa, Boetti transforms the map from a static instrument into a dynamic, collective act of world-making: an image of a world continually reshaped by human hands.

Alongside other examples held in the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York; Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA); Museum moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig Wien (Mumok), Vienna; Guggenheim, Abu Dhabi; and Dia Beacon, New York, among others, it stands as a key work in the artist’s exploration of authorship, cultural duality and collaboration.