114 ENZO MARI


were used instead of nails. Te same year, he designed the elegant Rexite Delfina chair, a stackable steel rod chair with removable Kvadrat fabric. Te minimal, chrome-plated design was awarded the Compasso d’Oro and, 40 years on, still appears remarkably contemporary. A wide range of Mari’s furniture designs are included in the Design Museum’s exhibition, alongside lesser-known graphic works and early kinetic artworks, giving visitors a full overview of his diverse practice. Reflecting Mari’s belief in design as an interactive process, the retrospective also features a number of hands-on exhibits, where visitors can engage with replicas of some of his best-known designs, revealing the thought and craftsmanship that each piece embodies.


Mari has inspired several generations of designers and his radical ideas are still shaping contemporary art and design. Indeed, the exhibition’s inclusion of works by international artists and designers such as Adelita Husni-Bey, Tacita Dean, Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster, Mimmo Jodice, Dozie Kanu, Adrian Paci, Barbara Stauffacher Solomon, Rirkrit Tiravanija, Danh Vo, Nanda Vigo, and Virgil Abloh, highlights the far- reaching influence that his work has had. Te retrospective is a fitting tribute to this colossus of international design and will likely be the last opportunity to see items from his extensive 1,500-piece archive for several decades because, when donating it to the city of Milan, he did so on the condition that it could not be shown again for another 40 years. Tis, he said, was because it would be


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The retrospective is a fitting tribute… and will likely be the last opportunity to see items from his 1,500- piece archive for several decades


16 15 2011-2012


‘Qualche puntino sulle i’ column


Eight final handwritten plates drawn by the author


Graphite and pastel on paper 33 x 45cm


Published in Wired (from no. 31 of September 2011 to no. 38 of April 2012) Private collection


16 2009


Project 1810, il puzzle istruzioni per l’uso Photo: Gianluca Di Ioia © Triennale Milano


17 2002


Scale 1:5 P chair kit (Mantua: Corraini Edizioni), Steel frame with photo, technical sheet, nails and balsa wood panels 25 x 365 x 342mm


Archivio E. Mari, City of Milan, CASVA


at least four decades before a new generation of designers, ‘not spoiled like today’s generation’, would be able to fully appreciate its significance and make informed use of it. Mari was a self-confessed utopian and, in this, we are reminded of his encouragement to aspiring designers to define their own model of an ideal world: ‘Te designer cannot fail to have his own ideology of the world. If he has none, he is a fool who only gives shape to other people’s ideas.’


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