Certificate Archive Alighiero Boetti n.1757

The concept of double is a recurrent theme in Boetti’s work: "we are in front of a natural reality: it is irrefutable that a biological cell divides itself in two parts, then in four and so on; that we have two legs, two arms, two eyes and so on…It is clear that human beings’ existence is based on a binary system - including computers…it is evident that the concept of the couple is one of the archetypal elements of our culture". Double and half are the recurrent couple in Boetti’s work; when one becomes double it automatically becomes half of what it was before and therefore there is always a missing unit. ‘La metà, il doppio e l’unità mancante' (1974) visualises this concept using mathematical rules and geometrical schemes. The subject of the double and the binary system is explored in the following years through works that look less mathematical and objective.