Enzo Mari

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Enzo Mari (1974)

Enzo Mari (born April 27, 1932 in Novara , Italy ; † October 19, 2020 in Milan ) was an Italian designer and object artist .

life and work

From 1952 to 1956 Mari studied literature and art at the Accademia di Belle Arti di Brera in Milan . He was particularly interested in the psychology of visual perception.

Mari became known through his work for the Italian companies Danese , Gavina, Artemide , Olivetti and Castelli, as well as through his numerous book publications on topics of design.

He taught at the Milan Polytechnic , the Center for Visual Communication in Parma, the Academy of Fine Arts in Carrara and from 1963 to 1966 at the Scuola Umanitaria in Milan. He was an honorary professor in the design department at the Hamburg University of Fine Arts . In 1968 he took part in the 4th documenta in Kassel .

His book Autoprogettazione from 1974 contained 19 designs for wooden tables, chairs, shelves and beds that only require simple tools to build. In doing so, he influenced the do-it-yourself movement. Everything you need for life should be put together in a simple and straightforward way with wooden boards and nails. With the Autoprogettazione series , which has long enjoyed cult status, he wanted to encourage self-design, so he designed the building instructions for a complete facility. It was important to him to make people understand the rules of the design process. If you paid him the postage, Mari sent the building instructions free of charge.

For Mari, sustainability was essential from an early age, design should be environmentally friendly, not a luxury product; the functionality of a product and the design was more important to him than the mere appearance and the system of star design. Mari was primarily concerned with imparting knowledge, taking a critical look at current productions.

Mari was not only a designer, he also curated exhibitions, wrote and taught, so that with him, his design and his objects many things came together to form a total work of art. In 2016, Mari announced that he would bequeath his archive to the city of Milan, although the city would not be allowed to show his work for 40 years. Jasper Morrison values ​​his design, which is based on simple principles, basic shapes and style elements. For the avant-garde designer duo Formafantasma, Mari was the role model, which far transcends the wishes of the client.

Mari lived and worked in Milan. He was married to the art critic Lea Vergine.

He died on October 19, 2020 in Milan as a result of COVID-19 . The next day, his wife Lea Vergine, with whom he had been married for almost 60 years, also died as a result of complications from a COVID-19 infection.

Publications

literature

Web links

Commons : Enzo Mari  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Profile of Enzo Mari
  2. ↑ Enzo Mari. Retrieved October 19, 2020 .
  3. ↑ happy birthday enzo mari! a video conversation and proust questionnaire. April 27, 2020, accessed on October 19, 2020 .
  4. ↑ Nick Normal: Enzo Mari's Autoprogettazone. April 20, 2013. Retrieved October 18, 2015.
  5. ↑ Laura Weißmüller: Why the design by Enzo Mari is still significant today. Retrieved May 29, 2020 .
  6. ↑ Enzo Mari: The designer died at the age of 88. In: NZZ. Retrieved October 20, 2020 .
  7. ^ Simone Mosca: Morta Lea Vergine, la critica d'arte scompare il giorno dopo suo marito Enzo Mari: era ricoverata con lui in ospedale. In: repubblica.it. October 20, 2020, accessed October 20, 2020 (Italian).
personal data
SURNAME Mari, Enzo
SHORT DESCRIPTION Italian designer and contract artist
DATE OF BIRTH April 27, 1932
PLACE OF BIRTH Novara , Italy
DATE OF DEATH 19th October 2020
Place of death Milan