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In Memoriam Enzo Mari
When I design an object and people say, ‘Oh, well done!’, I unfailingly ask myself, ‘Where did I go wrong?’ If everybody likes it, it means I have confirmed the existing reality and this is precisely what I don’t want.
Enzo Mari was not afraid to be considered a contrarian. Along with his pencils he carried his principles with him wherever he went. The artist and designer, who died recently, was extraordinarily prolific, creating over 2000 realised designs during a 60 year career: pepper pots and children’s books, furniture and toys, calendars, posters, buildings, street furniture … his output knew no bounds.
Enzo’s approach to design, and his left wing politics, were forged early, during a childhood of poverty and hardship. When his father Luigi fell ill, he was forced to quit school and take on any work he could find. At first he delivered cabbages. Then he laid bricks. For a time he sold soap. Eventually though, Enzo gravitated towards work which allowed his creative instincts to flourish, no matter how humble the medium might be …
I would apply for any sort of artisanal work that would come up. Making a sign for a wine-seller, for example, or supports for a shop window. I couldn’t let on that I still had no method. Each time I would attempt to figure out, to understand, what was essential. This search for what is essential is still today my first thought when designing.
Once he became established as a professional designer in the 1950’s Enzo brought simplicity, innovation and egalitarianism to everything he did.
With the Autoprogettazione project Enzo provided a step by step guide for anyone to build their own furniture from scratch with the simplest of materials. Above is a chair from the project. Yet Enzo’s hope was not just that people would build the furniture, but also that in the process they would add their own modifications and acquire rudimentary design and fabrication skills themselves. Over 5000 people wrote to his studio in Milan to request a manual.
