Il lavoro intellettuale
Il lavoro intellettuale: sessanta fermacarte ('The intellectual work: sixty paperweights'), 2010
Various materials
In this work, pages from notebooks of great thinkers, artists and scientists, including musical scores and manuscripts, are anchored with paperweights. The installation evokes a worktable, where fragmented ideas emerge and their originator attempts to capture them before they disappear.
It suggests Mari's desire to preserve his own archive for posterity. The paperweights are an assortment of found objects, which Mari collected throughout his life.*
From the exhibition
Enzo Mari
(March – September 2024)
This major exhibition celebrates the life and work of one of the greatest Italian designers of the 20th century, Enzo Mari, whose designs have inspired generations of creatives around the world)
Not only one of the 20th century’s most significant designers, Mari was also an artist, teacher, theorist, and more. During his prolific career, he created countless enduring and timeless designs, filling the homes and streets of the Milanese and beyond. An outspoken critic of the design industry, his uncompromising belief in the social responsibility of design resonates powerfully today, as we face ecological and ethical issues with ever greater urgency.
This unmissable retrospective which was produced and presented by Triennale Milano in 2020, spans Mari’s 60-year career and brings together hundreds of his projects, ranging from furniture, children’s books and games, product and graphic design, to more conceptual installation-based works. Archival material provides greater insight into Mari’s research process, and the key principles that guided and unified his work.
[*Design Museum]
Taken in the Design Museum
Unless otherwise stated, work is by Enzo Mari
Il lavoro intellettuale
Il lavoro intellettuale: sessanta fermacarte ('The intellectual work: sixty paperweights'), 2010
Various materials
In this work, pages from notebooks of great thinkers, artists and scientists, including musical scores and manuscripts, are anchored with paperweights. The installation evokes a worktable, where fragmented ideas emerge and their originator attempts to capture them before they disappear.
It suggests Mari's desire to preserve his own archive for posterity. The paperweights are an assortment of found objects, which Mari collected throughout his life.*
From the exhibition
Enzo Mari
(March – September 2024)
This major exhibition celebrates the life and work of one of the greatest Italian designers of the 20th century, Enzo Mari, whose designs have inspired generations of creatives around the world)
Not only one of the 20th century’s most significant designers, Mari was also an artist, teacher, theorist, and more. During his prolific career, he created countless enduring and timeless designs, filling the homes and streets of the Milanese and beyond. An outspoken critic of the design industry, his uncompromising belief in the social responsibility of design resonates powerfully today, as we face ecological and ethical issues with ever greater urgency.
This unmissable retrospective which was produced and presented by Triennale Milano in 2020, spans Mari’s 60-year career and brings together hundreds of his projects, ranging from furniture, children’s books and games, product and graphic design, to more conceptual installation-based works. Archival material provides greater insight into Mari’s research process, and the key principles that guided and unified his work.
[*Design Museum]
Taken in the Design Museum
Unless otherwise stated, work is by Enzo Mari