From Ways of Curating, by Hans Ulrich Obrist, out this month from Faber and Faber. Obrist is the codirector of exhibitions and programs and of international projects at the Serpentine Galleries in London.

In 1986, during a school trip to Rome, I decided to go my own way and visit Alighiero Boetti. At the time, he was working on ideas relating to maps and mapmaking. In 1971, Boetti had begun making embroidered maps of the world. He collaborated with embroiderers in Afghanistan and Pakistan, traveling and collaborating at a distance, especially following the Soviet occupation of Aghanistan in 1979.…