The work of Enzo Mari seen by Hans Ulrich Obrist

An exhibition dedicated to the work and thought of the Italian designer and academic, at Triennale Milano.

The work of Enzo Mari seen by Hans Ulrich Obrist Structure 746, Galleria Nazionale di Arte Moderna e Contemporanea, 1963

The work of Enzo Mari seen by Hans Ulrich Obrist Paros series, Danese, Milano, Installation view, 1064

The work of Enzo Mari seen by Hans Ulrich Obrist Structure 793, collection E.Righi and Structure 795, Private Collection, 1965

The work of Enzo Mari seen by Hans Ulrich Obrist 44 Evaluations, Installation view, 1976-2008

The work of Enzo Mari seen by Hans Ulrich Obrist Allegory of Death, Galleria Nazionale di Arte Moderna e Contemporanea, 1987

The work of Enzo Mari seen by Hans Ulrich Obrist Perché una mostra di falci, Danese, Milano, 1989

The work of Enzo Mari seen by Hans Ulrich Obrist What culture, Allegory, Private collection, 1998

The work of Enzo Mari seen by Hans Ulrich Obrist Nanda Vigo and Dan Vo, Installation view

The work of Enzo Mari seen by Hans Ulrich Obrist Installation view

The work of Enzo Mari seen by Hans Ulrich Obrist Vodun African Voodoo, Fondation Cartier pour l'art Contemporain, Paris, installation view

The work of Enzo Mari seen by Hans Ulrich Obrist Installation view

The work of Enzo Mari seen by Hans Ulrich Obrist Nanda Vigo, Lo zoo di Enzo, 2020

The work of Enzo Mari seen by Hans Ulrich Obrist Education space, installation view

The work of Enzo Mari seen by Hans Ulrich Obrist 1952, Equipment for research on colour and volume relations paper and wood, 37.5 x 36 x 33 cm (visor), 30 x 30 x 12 cm (squares), 10.5 x 10.5 x 10.5 cm (cubes), Private collection

Photo Attribuito Paolo Monti

The work of Enzo Mari seen by Hans Ulrich Obrist 1953, I luoghi deputati (The designated places), tempera on paper, 70 x 100 cm, Private collection

Photo Benvenuto Saba

The work of Enzo Mari seen by Hans Ulrich Obrist 1957, 16 animals, interlocking game produced by Danese Milano in wood in 1959 and later in polyurethane, 5.5 x 36 x 27 cm, Danese Milano

Photo Federico Villa

The work of Enzo Mari seen by Hans Ulrich Obrist 1957, 16 animals, interlocking game produced by Danese Milano in wood in 1959 and later in polyurethane, 5.5 x 36 x 27 cm, Danese Milano

Photo Federico Villa

The work of Enzo Mari seen by Hans Ulrich Obrist 1957, 16 animals, interlocking game produced by Danese Milano in wood in 1959 and later in polyurethane, 5.5 x 36 x 27 cm, Danese Milano

Photo Federico Villa

The work of Enzo Mari seen by Hans Ulrich Obrist 1958, Iron section bar containers, Putrella series, model A, plain iron tray, 46 x 13 x 8 cm, Danese Milano

Photo Fabio e Sergio Grazzani

The work of Enzo Mari seen by Hans Ulrich Obrist 1958/1969. La mela e la farfalla, printing draft, polychrome print on coated paper, 193 x 203 mm. Archivio E. Mari, City of Milan, CASVA

Photo Gianluca Di Ioia - © Triennale Milano

The work of Enzo Mari seen by Hans Ulrich Obrist 1961, Camicia, glass flower vase with aluminium cylinder, 48 x 12 cm, Danese Milano, Permanent collection, Triennale Milano

The work of Enzo Mari seen by Hans Ulrich Obrist 1961, The Nature Series, No. 2: the pear, with Elio Mari, silk-screen print on texilina paper, 112 x 112 cm, Danese Milano

Photo Danese Milano 

The work of Enzo Mari seen by Hans Ulrich Obrist 1961, The Nature Series, No. 1: the apple, with Elio Mari, silk-screen print on texilina paper, 112 x 112 cm, Danese Milano

Photo Danese Milano 

The work of Enzo Mari seen by Hans Ulrich Obrist 1963, Formosa, perpetual wall calendar in plain, anodized aluminium and lithographed PVC, 31.5 x 31.5 cm, Danese Milano

The work of Enzo Mari seen by Hans Ulrich Obrist The Nature Series, No. 5: the wolf, with Elio Mari, silk-screen print on texilina paper, 56 x 112 cm, Danese Milano

Photo Davide Clari © Fondazione Jacqueline Vodoz e Bruno Danese, 1964 254 255

The work of Enzo Mari seen by Hans Ulrich Obrist The Nature Series, No. 5: the panther, with Elio Mari, silk-screen print on texilina paper, 56 x 112 cm, Danese Milano

Photo Danese Milano

The work of Enzo Mari seen by Hans Ulrich Obrist 1965, Structure 793, small PVC tubes, 48 x 40 x 30 cm, Collection E. Righi

The work of Enzo Mari seen by Hans Ulrich Obrist 1967, The Nature Series, preliminary sketches and variations for the goose, with Elio Mari, 120 x 70 cm, Private collection

1967
The Nature Series
preliminary sketches and variations for the goose
with Elio Mari
120 x 70 cm
Private collection

Photo Studio Enzo Mari

The work of Enzo Mari seen by Hans Ulrich Obrist 1969, L’uovo e la gallina, Emme Edizioni, polychrome print on coated paper, 215 x 215 mm 

Archivio E. Mari, City of Milan, CASVA

The work of Enzo Mari seen by Hans Ulrich Obrist 1969, L’uovo e la gallina, Emme Edizioni, polychrome print on coated paper,, 215 x 215 mm 

Archivio E. Mari, City of Milan, CASVA

The work of Enzo Mari seen by Hans Ulrich Obrist 1974, Atlante secondo Lenin:, Social Plate, Economy Plate, Geography Plate, Culture Plate, History Plate, with Francesco Leonetti, Edizioni L’Erba Voglio, 1976, 6 lithograph panels,, 33 x 45.5 cm each, Private collection

The work of Enzo Mari seen by Hans Ulrich Obrist 1975  Il Lavoro, second panel of the Critica della Ricerca Intellettuale Separata, lithograph, 54 x 45 cm, Edizioni Il Lavoro Liberato, Private collection

Photo Studio Enzo Mari

The work of Enzo Mari seen by Hans Ulrich Obrist 1987, Allegory of death, 3 gravestones, toy cars, soil exhibited at Galleria d’Arte Moderna, Republic of San Marino, during the Modelli del reale exhibition, 11 June – 24 August 1988

The work of Enzo Mari seen by Hans Ulrich Obrist 1994, Per forza di levare, “broken vase”, the shape of the vase was obtained by hitting the porcelain cylinder with a mallet, 38 x Ø 12 cm, KPM Berlin, Private collection

The work of Enzo Mari seen by Hans Ulrich Obrist 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 342 mm

Archivio E. Mari, City of Milan, CASVA

The work of Enzo Mari seen by Hans Ulrich Obrist 2009, Project 1810, il puzzle istruzioni per l’uso 

 Photo Gianluca Di Ioia - © Triennale Milano

The work of Enzo Mari seen by Hans Ulrich Obrist 2011-2012, “Qualche puntino sulle i” column  eight final handwritten plates drawn by the author graphite and pastel on paper, 33 x 45 cm, published in Wired (from no. 31 of September 2011 to no. 38 of April 2012), Private collection

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La redazione di Domus
16 October 2020
Milan, Italy
exhibition
2020

Milano Triennale and its Museum of Italian Design open on October 17 an exhibition curated by Hans Ulrich Obrist with Francesca Giacomelli dedicated entirely to the work and ideas of Enzo Mari, one of the most important designers, artists, critics and theorists of the Italian school. The exhibition includes projects, models, drawings and materials, many of which have never been exhibited before, from the Enzo Mari Archive, recently donated to CASVA, the center for advanced studies on visual arts of the City of Milan.

The Nature Series, No. 5: the panther, with Elio Mari, silk-screen print on texilina paper, 56 x 112 cm, Danese Milano. Photo Danese Milano

The exhibition consists of a historical section, curated by Francesca Giacomelli, and a series of contributions from international artists and designers – including Delita Husni-Bey, Tacita Dean, Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster, Mimmo Jodice, Dozie Kanu, Adrian Paci, Barbara Stauffacher Solomon, Rirkrit Tiravanija, Danh Vō, Nanda Vigo – who were invited to pay homage to Mari with site-specific installations and new works specially commissioned. A particular contribution is that of Nanda Vigo, whose work, realized for the exhibition shortly before her death and never exhibited before, reinterprets with light 16 animals and 16 fish, two of Mari's most famous works.

The historical section develops, instead, starting from the rearrangement of the last exhibition project of the author, Enzo Mari. L’arte del design, held at GAM, Galleria Civica d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea of Turin in 2008-2009. The exhibition presents a corpus of about 250 projects by Mari – from the Paintings of the 1950s to the Structures of the 1950s and 1960s (Arte programmata), from the Putrella series of containers (1958) to the art multiples of La Serie della Natura (1961-1976) – considered among the most representative of the almost 2,000 projects conceived during his career, exhibited in chronological order, without distinction between disciplines, techniques and types of research.

Perché una mostra di falci, Danese, Milano, 1989. © Triennale Milano. Photo Gianluca Di Ioia

At the same time, the section that brings together nineteen Research Platforms presents in-depth studies on nineteen projects from which emerge the central themes in Mari’s practice and poetics, such as the first investigations into perceptual ambiguities, research on experimental production, research on series production, and the theme of the standard. The in-depth studies include a selection of the Allegories and of the latest projects realized by Mari in the years following the anthological exhibition in Turin, including the scenographic project for the exhibition Vodun, African Voodoo (2011) designed for the Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain in Paris in 2010, of which an environment with formal references to the structures of the models that make up the 1974 Proposal for a self-design.

A series of video interviews made by Hans Ulrich Obrist completes the journey, testifying to Mari’s constant ethical tension, his theoretical depth and extraordinary ability to give shape to the essential.

Enzo Mari curated by Hans Ulrich Obrist with Francesca Giacomelli
Hans Ulrich Obrist and Francesca Giacomelli
Paolo Ulian
Lorenza Baroncelli
17 October 2020 – 18 April 2021
Triennale Milano, viale Alemagna 6, 20121, Milano