110 ENZO MARI


established by Bruno Danese and his wife Jacqueline Vodoz in late 1957. Described as a ‘long-term project to bring art into everyday life’, its main focus was the creation of small design objects and accessories, including innovative games and books for children. When not creating kinetic art, Mari spent much of his early career developing games and toys, and a generation of children in Italy grew up with his innovative designs. One of his best-loved products was 16 Animali (1957), a puzzle game for preschoolers featuring a variety of stylised animals – monkeys, snakes, camels, elephants, alligators and the like – all jigsawed from a single rectangular block of oak.


Commissioned in 1956 while he was working on research and development at Italy’s famous La Rinascente department store, 16 Animali was inspired by Scandinavian children’s toys and took 30 sketches and three prototypes before the design was finalised. While all of the animals slot elegantly together, each one is designed as an object in its own right, encouraging children to use


evoking the architectural scale of the building site on a tabletop and, as with many of his radical designs, it challenged expectations of everyday products. Originally conceived as one of several variations on the I-beam form, the Putrella proved the most enduring, and its shape became something of a signature for Mari, echoed in later products such as the steel Arran Tray (1961).


In the 1960s, Mari and his wife Iela produced a series of books for children


about nature and its cycles, including the acclaimed Te Apple and the Butterfly (1969), a wordless picture book with striking minimalistic illustrations that tell the story of a caterpillar crawling out of an apple and retreating to its cocoon before becoming a butterfly and then feeding on a flower, which in turn grows into another apple. Originally published as La Mela e la Farfalla (the Apple and the Moth) in 1958, it was designed to help preliterate children understand the world


5 1961 The Nature Series


No. 1: The apple with Elio Mari Silk-screen print on texilina paper


112 x 112cm Danese Milano


Photo: Danese Milano


6 1958/1969. La mela e la farfalla, printing draft Polychrome print on coated paper


193 x 203mm.


Archivio E. Mari, City of Milan, CASVA Photo: Gianluca Di Ioia © Triennale Milano


7 1964 5


The Nature Series No. 4: The panther with Elio Mari


Silk-screen print on texilina paper


56 x 112cm Danese Milano


Photo: Danese Milano 8 1965


Structure 793 small PVC tubes 48 x 40 x 30cm Collection E. Righi


9 1958


Iron section bar containers Putrella series, model A Plain iron tray 46 x 13 x 8cm Danese Milano


Photo: Fabio e Sergio Grazzani


their imaginations to develop creative play. After La Rinascente decided not to manufacture the puzzle, it was picked up by Danese the following year. Initially produced in wood, it was later made with Baydur, a durable, polyurethane resin that reduced production costs while offering a similar look and feel.


Mari, who loved to challenge the status quo, once described his approach to design by saying: ‘I take an industrial object, a pure, lovely object, I make a small change, I introduce a discordant element, that is design.’ Tis was certainly true of Putrella (1958), his elegant multifunctional tray for which he repurposed an industrial I-beam. By gently curving a section of the steel beam at either end, Mari created a sophisticated table accessory that paid homage to the rugged beauty of this utilitarian material. Made for Danese Milano, it is often described as a fruit bowl, though has no prescribed function. By using an object normally seen in the construction industry, Mari succeeded in


6


7


10 1963


Formosa calendario perpetuo da parete


In natural anodised aluminium and lithographed PVC 31.5 x 31.5cm


Photo: Danese Milano


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