108 ENZO MARI


responsible design that was accessible to all. T is spring, the Design Museum in London pays homage to Mari with a major exhibition celebrating his remarkable contribution to the world of design (29 March to 8 September 2024). Co-curated by Hans Ulrich Obrist and Francesca Giacomelli (Mari’s long-time archivist), the expansive retrospective, which debuted at Triennale Milano in 2020, will showcase hundreds of projects from his 60-year career, including prototypes, drawings and other rare material from his vast private archive (donated to Milan’s Centre for Advanced Studies in the Visual Arts shortly before his death from Covid-19 complications in 2020). Having grown from years of dialogue and exchange of ideas between Mari and Obrist, the exhibition will provide new insights into the designer’s research processes and the key principles that guided and unifi ed his work. ‘He is the most


infl uential designer of our time,’ says Obrist; ‘T e Leonardo da Vinci of our age.’ Mari was raised in rural Piedmont and moved to Milan in 1947, taking on various jobs before enrolling at the Accademia di Belle Arti di Brera in 1952, the only college that did not require a high school diploma. Here, alongside literature, he studied painting, sculpture and stage design, fi nding great inspiration in the idealism of the arts and crafts movement. He also developed a strong interest in the methodology of design and the psychology of vision. After graduating in 1956, he worked as an artist, joining the Italian Kinetic Art group Arte Programmata and creating works such as Struttura n. 1065 (1965), a grid of natural and black anodised aluminium squares set at diff erent depths to create an optical illusion of movement. At the same time, he was working with the Milan- based design studio Danese Milano,


2 1953 I luoghi deputati


(The designated places) Tempera on paper 70 x 100cm


Private collection Photo: Benvenuto Saba


3 1957 16 animals


Interlocking game produced by Danese Milano in wood in 1959 and later in polyurethane 5.5 x 36 x 27cm Danese Milano Photo: Federico Villa


4 Enzo Mari


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