ENZO MARI - WORKING INTO FOCUS The exhibition organised by Antonio d'Arossa and Francesca Picchi for the Triennale of Milan, will focus on design and the role of designers and through Enzo Mari's own experience will try to tell "all those allegorical implications which hint at working conditions which are not alienated and, consequently, at a different society". Together with design items, other conceptual works of art are exposed. Some of them have already been exhibited at the Venice Biennale and during other events, on the other hand there are pieces of wok created for this special occasion, such as the large Zen garden. This piece of work allows reading the creative path of the author and of his designing process that is the real heart of the exhibition. The exposition of programmatic pieces of art created in the 50s and 60s is meant to define Mari's research method, which consists of "separating and trying to eliminate what is useless and faint". The goose of the Nature series, of 1967, which is exposed at the end of the exhibition, is a good example of this process. In fact, the artist worked on several pieces always repeating the same subject and, in the end, managed to get at its own essence and archetype freeing it from every conditioning. We can see the same process in the project for Piuma cutlery created in 1991. The exhibition presents also sketches and alternative models drawn before Mari actually concluded them. The author's persevering tension towards the research of extreme simplicity achieves its best example with semi-manufactured products. In this exhibition, we can admire the putrella, created in 1958, a slightly bent double-T shaped beam which could be used as tray. In its essential expressive strength the putrella appears as the paradigm of Mari's research and work. Ente Autonomo La Triennale di Milano Viale Alemagna, 6 - 20121 -Milano - Italia Tel. +39/02724341 Fax. +39/0289010693 E-mail: triennale@comm2000.it

Text by: Gloria Refini I. II. III. IV. V. In cooperation with: M.Angeles Fernández Alvarez TOP