The Intellectual Work: Enzo Mari
07 Sep - 19 Nov 2011
THE INTELLECTUAL WORK: ENZO MARI
with Pavel Büchler, Jason Dodge, Tim Rollins + K.O.S.
Curated by Barbara Casavecchia in collaboration with Tanya Leighton
7 September – 19 November 2011
We are very pleased to announce 'The Intellectual Work', an exhibition by the master of Italian design Enzo Mari (b. 1932, Novara, Italy).
'The Intellectual Work' brings together a selection of paperweights Mari has been collecting for decades. They are both objets trouvés (industrial products, multiples, metal joints, discarded pieces of glass, door knobs, wood and metal samples, fossils...) and sculptural readymades assembled by Mari himself. Each one has its own weight, story and place, within Mari’s inner scenery, as he regularly uses the paperweights to keep in place the thousands of sheets of paper covered in sketches and ideas that flow around his studio.
But this is not the exhibition of a collection, nor the mere recreation of an atelier setting. Instead, the installation works as an ‘allegory’ – in Mari’s own words – of the essence of his practice, as much as of the practice of whoever undertakes ‘intellectual work’.
Throughout his life - as an artist, designer, teacher, and theoretician - Mari has investigated the role of the intellectual, the cooperation of thinking and doing, heads and hands, words and things. At the core of his working method there is the habit of saying no, an awful lot of nos (to himself in the first place, since he’s constantly unsatisfied about the results of his quest for function and beauty, but also to the pressing needs of the market). By building piles of mistakes and refusals, and holding them still with paperweights, Mari sets aside whatever doesn’t seem good enough, or durable enough, or ethical enough, in his own views, every day.
It’s within this context, that the installation will open up a series of subsequent ‘dialogues’ with the works – created specifically for this occasion – by three artists (and Mari admirers) equally challenged and informed by the notion of ‘intellectual work’ and its possible declinations: Jason Dodge, Tim Rollins and K.O.S, Pavel Büchler.
EXHIBITION PREVIEW DATES (the artists will be present):
Enzo Mari, Jason Dodge
Preview: Tuesday September 6, 2011, 6 – 9PM
Enzo Mari, Tim Rollins and K.O.S.
Preview: Friday 30 September, 2011, 6 – 9PM
Enzo Mari, Pavel Büchler
Preview: Saturday 29 October, 2011, 6 – 9 PM
The exhibition will be accompanied by a Kaleidoscope publication realized in collaboration with Mari, with a critical essay by Barbara Casavecchia and photographs by Carlo Lavatori, plus a limited edition of posters by Jason Dodge, Tim Rollins and K.O.S, and Pavel Büchler.
Born in 1932 in Novara, Italy, Enzo Mari works in a number of different domains. All his projects, though, spring from the same idea: the concept of “form and design”. His work began in the 1950s with research into visual perception, on the “psychology of vision, systems of perception and methodologies of design”. He subsequently became one of the members of the “Arte Programmata e Cinetica” movement. In 1963, he became the coordinator of the Italian “Nuova Tendenza” group and, in 1965, organized its exhibition at the Zagreb Biennale. Alongside his artistic research, he launched his career as an industrial designer, expressing himself through graphic design and architecture. His research and projects have won him several accolades including four Compasso d’Oro from the ADI (Associazione per il Disegno Industriale).
Enzo Mari has taught at the Centre for Visual Communication Studies at the University of Parma, the Accademia Carrara, the Architecture Faculty at Milan Polytechnic, the Arts University of Berlin, the Institute of Industrial Arts of Florence (ISIA), and at the College of Applied Arts (Hochschule für Angewandte Kunst) in Vienna. He now works with several industrial companies (the most well-known include: Danese, Driade, Magis, Olivetti, Robots and Zanotta). His works can be found in several museums and private collections such as: the Archivio del Progetto at the University of Parma, the National Gallery of Modern Art in Rome, the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam, the Moderna Museet in Stockholm, the Kaiser Wilhelm Museum in Krefeld, the Kunstmuseum in Düsseldorf, and the Louvre in Paris.
Key exhibitions:
Modelli del reale, Galleria d’Arte Moderna, Repubblica di San Marino, 1988
Arbeiten in Berlin, Schloss Charlottenburg, Berlin, 1996
Tre Mostre di Enzo Mari, Museo Internazionale delle Ceramiche, Faenza, 2000
Il lavoro al centro, Arts Santa Mònica, Barcelona, 1999
The Triennale in Milan, 2000
Enzo Mari, l’Arte del design, Galleria Civica d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea (GAM), Turin, 2008
with Pavel Büchler, Jason Dodge, Tim Rollins + K.O.S.
Curated by Barbara Casavecchia in collaboration with Tanya Leighton
7 September – 19 November 2011
We are very pleased to announce 'The Intellectual Work', an exhibition by the master of Italian design Enzo Mari (b. 1932, Novara, Italy).
'The Intellectual Work' brings together a selection of paperweights Mari has been collecting for decades. They are both objets trouvés (industrial products, multiples, metal joints, discarded pieces of glass, door knobs, wood and metal samples, fossils...) and sculptural readymades assembled by Mari himself. Each one has its own weight, story and place, within Mari’s inner scenery, as he regularly uses the paperweights to keep in place the thousands of sheets of paper covered in sketches and ideas that flow around his studio.
But this is not the exhibition of a collection, nor the mere recreation of an atelier setting. Instead, the installation works as an ‘allegory’ – in Mari’s own words – of the essence of his practice, as much as of the practice of whoever undertakes ‘intellectual work’.
Throughout his life - as an artist, designer, teacher, and theoretician - Mari has investigated the role of the intellectual, the cooperation of thinking and doing, heads and hands, words and things. At the core of his working method there is the habit of saying no, an awful lot of nos (to himself in the first place, since he’s constantly unsatisfied about the results of his quest for function and beauty, but also to the pressing needs of the market). By building piles of mistakes and refusals, and holding them still with paperweights, Mari sets aside whatever doesn’t seem good enough, or durable enough, or ethical enough, in his own views, every day.
It’s within this context, that the installation will open up a series of subsequent ‘dialogues’ with the works – created specifically for this occasion – by three artists (and Mari admirers) equally challenged and informed by the notion of ‘intellectual work’ and its possible declinations: Jason Dodge, Tim Rollins and K.O.S, Pavel Büchler.
EXHIBITION PREVIEW DATES (the artists will be present):
Enzo Mari, Jason Dodge
Preview: Tuesday September 6, 2011, 6 – 9PM
Enzo Mari, Tim Rollins and K.O.S.
Preview: Friday 30 September, 2011, 6 – 9PM
Enzo Mari, Pavel Büchler
Preview: Saturday 29 October, 2011, 6 – 9 PM
The exhibition will be accompanied by a Kaleidoscope publication realized in collaboration with Mari, with a critical essay by Barbara Casavecchia and photographs by Carlo Lavatori, plus a limited edition of posters by Jason Dodge, Tim Rollins and K.O.S, and Pavel Büchler.
Born in 1932 in Novara, Italy, Enzo Mari works in a number of different domains. All his projects, though, spring from the same idea: the concept of “form and design”. His work began in the 1950s with research into visual perception, on the “psychology of vision, systems of perception and methodologies of design”. He subsequently became one of the members of the “Arte Programmata e Cinetica” movement. In 1963, he became the coordinator of the Italian “Nuova Tendenza” group and, in 1965, organized its exhibition at the Zagreb Biennale. Alongside his artistic research, he launched his career as an industrial designer, expressing himself through graphic design and architecture. His research and projects have won him several accolades including four Compasso d’Oro from the ADI (Associazione per il Disegno Industriale).
Enzo Mari has taught at the Centre for Visual Communication Studies at the University of Parma, the Accademia Carrara, the Architecture Faculty at Milan Polytechnic, the Arts University of Berlin, the Institute of Industrial Arts of Florence (ISIA), and at the College of Applied Arts (Hochschule für Angewandte Kunst) in Vienna. He now works with several industrial companies (the most well-known include: Danese, Driade, Magis, Olivetti, Robots and Zanotta). His works can be found in several museums and private collections such as: the Archivio del Progetto at the University of Parma, the National Gallery of Modern Art in Rome, the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam, the Moderna Museet in Stockholm, the Kaiser Wilhelm Museum in Krefeld, the Kunstmuseum in Düsseldorf, and the Louvre in Paris.
Key exhibitions:
Modelli del reale, Galleria d’Arte Moderna, Repubblica di San Marino, 1988
Arbeiten in Berlin, Schloss Charlottenburg, Berlin, 1996
Tre Mostre di Enzo Mari, Museo Internazionale delle Ceramiche, Faenza, 2000
Il lavoro al centro, Arts Santa Mònica, Barcelona, 1999
The Triennale in Milan, 2000
Enzo Mari, l’Arte del design, Galleria Civica d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea (GAM), Turin, 2008