Enzo Mari

Enzo Mari, artist and designer, has created for FIAM the table in curved glass Montefeltro and the coffee table in glass Giano.

Mari was born in Novara in 1932. During the early ’50s he attended the Art Academy in Brera in Milan concentrating on research “into the psychology of vision, the planning of perceptive structures and the methodology of design”.

From the end of the ’50s he added design to his activity as a philologist of the visual arts, aware of the need to steer popular culture towards a project of global quality.

In the course of his career he developed more than 1000 projects for Italian and foreign companies, among which Danese, Olivetti, Boringhieri, Adelphi, Driade, Le Creuset, Artemide, Castelli, FIAM, Gabbianelli, Municipality of Milan, Interflex, Zanotta, Fantini, Agape, Alessi, Zani e Zani, K.P.M., Robots, Ideal Standard Arnolfo di Cambio, Magis and Rosenthal.

Enzo Mari: his design products in exhibition

He has exhibited his works in a large number of Italian and foreign museums, such as a room at the Venice Biennale; a room at Kassel; the “Modelli del Reale” exhibition, Republic of San Marino; “Arbeiten in Berlin”, Schloss Charlottenburg, Berlin; the exhibition “Enzo Mari il lavoro al centro” in Barcelona and at the Milan Triennale Museum; a room at the National gallery of modern art in Rome and the “Tre mostre di Enzo Mari” exhibition, Faenza.

Enzo Mari in the publishing field

The disciplinary complexity of his work attracted comment from personalities in the world of culture, such as Max Bill, Pierre Restany, Ettore Sottsass, Alessandro Mendini, Arturo Carlo Quintavalle, Giovanni Klaus Koenig, Vittorio Gregoretti, Maurizio Calvesi and François Burkhardt.

In January 2001 his essay “Progetto e passione” was published, in which, without discussing his own work, he places the problems of design against a wider cultural horizon