Enzo Mari (born 1932), artist, designer and theorist, whose work and critical approach has strongly influenced the world of design, will donate to the City of Milan, the city where he worked and lived, the archive that documents his professional activity from 1952 to 2015. About 1.500 projects, documented by technical drawings, models, prototypes, transparencies, drawings, proofs of printing, posters, works of art, photographs, books and catalogues linked to Enzo Mari’s work, become part of Milan’s civic heritage. The archive has been donated to be rearranged, preserved and made available to the public.

It will be hosted at CASVA, Centro di Alti Studi sulle Arti Visive, established by the City of Milan in 1999 and which today already holds twenty-two professional archives related to the world of architecture, design, graphics, including that of Vittorio Gregotti, Roberto Sambonet and the DDL studio of Jonathan De Pas, Donato D’Urbino, Paolo Lomazzi.

Some materials from the archive donated to the Municipality will be displayed in the exhibition “Enzo Mari curated by Hans Ulrich Obrist”, which will open on April 17th at the Triennale di Milano, with the historical curatorship of Francesca Giacomelli and the artistic direction of Lorenza Baroncelli. It will therefore be a first opportunity to see some of the projects, drawings and documents from Mari’s archive, alongside the contributions of a series of artists and designers invited by the curator to pay homage to her work and figure.

Together with the donation of Mari’s archive, the Milan Council approved the project for the construction of CASVA, a centre of European relevance for the study of 20th century architecture, art and design, in the QT8 district, with a planned investment of 7.350.000 euros.

Top image: screen printing “la Mela” of the “Nature Series” made by Enzo Mari for Danese in 1963, taken from "Enzo Mari ’67", from domus 458, January 1968.