Multiple categorizations in archives and files related to Enzo Mari and his works as a designer/ maker/ intellectual/ revolutionary, fail really to describe his “style” or let’s better say to place him on a specific rank in design history. His radical aspirations (inside the Nuove Tendenze movement back in 1963), his off-key start in fine arts and book binding, his beliefs in the New Age idealism of the 70’s (published in his own private manifesto, the legendary “Funzione della ricerca estetica” in 1970), his engagement to a personalized process when it comes to mass production (illustrated in his “Tecnica Povera”- inspired furniture in 1974), his warnings about over-industrialization, his disappointment about progressive political powers turned into a toxic status quo, his criticism on the 90’s design glamorama, his continuous faith to a system of values of caring/amend/curate –made him an anticonformist figure among the constellation of pioneering design superheroes in and out of Italy, his country of birth.
A child and a teacher, a rebel and a restorer, a maker and a technocrat, a thinker and a maker, Mari’s legacy goes far beyond design and it contributes to a mindset or a system of politics of thought, which is very powerfully influential on the millennials’ readiness for a change, especially during the pandemic era. His positioning in creative self-doubt when it comes to the evolution of his work throughout the years, from his very first design of a ingenious wooden toy of 16 animals piling up, made for Danese in 1957 to his most recent works like the citrus juicer Titanic for Alessi and his lighting designs for Artemide, Mari is the last of the great Masters of design, one that incarnates the indefinite questioning of his proper abilities, pushing the boundaries even when his at his safest in terms of acceptance and recognition.
With a healthy distance from the over-playfulness-per se of the Memphis movement, reluctant and worried to the massive use of plastic established by the Futurists, inciting Utilitarian modernism but in limited mass production high-grade steel kitchen utensils only for them to be able to last the maximum period of time, embracing wood and its remains to up-cycle furniture parts in an advanced eco-friendly mode, understanding the need of a universal political movement, one that resists the cruel ambitions of political lobbyists, Mari resumed his incredibly good design as a entirely independent spirit, non-aligned with any league or system, always truthful to his own, inner voice, always ahead of its era. Alberto Alessi’s quote on Mari: “I am grateful that Enzo Mari (ever) existed and continued to work fervently, non-stop, with courageous and uncompromising tenancy in a world that design is always under the threat to be dominated by pure marketing”.
Thank you 4 All Enzo Mari. Float away into the galaxy, kept by the company of our warmest thoughts.
A4D-D4A💙💚🙌
