Since around 1965 Alighiero Boetti has been working on a stylistically very diverse oeuvre, initially counted as Arte Povera. He investigates the notion of duality in couples of opposites such as order and chaos (\"ordine e disordine\" is the title of a series of works), nature and artefact, coincidence and system. He sees these as merely linguistic conventions. After all, each thing encompasses its opposite. In a playful confrontation between \"objective\" orders such as geometry, numerical proportions, grids and the chaotic environment, he questions the Western system of thought. Thinking in categories, according to him, undermines the possibility of understanding the world.
