1965, Java, prima versione, Danese Milano
Designer duo Formafantasma on the discovery of Enzo Mari in the fourth episode of Enzo Mari Costellazione
November 26 2020
Design duo Formafantasma explains the influence Enzo Mari had on their ongoing research about the “implication of production” in design processes in the forth episode of Enzo Mari Costellazione.
Enzo Mari Costellazione, Episode 4, Formafantasma
"In my case it was quite an early stage of my life because I was interested in design already when I was 16 and I was in art school, and I knew that Enzo Mari was coming in our institution to give a prize for a ceramic contest and I wanted to get suggestions from him about where to continue my studies, and of course he told me that all design schools were crap!"
Simone Farresin
"For me, of course, I knew him already through history book but then I really got to know his work much better when I was at ISIA, where I also met Simone, and it was the first school in Italy that was born after the economic boom in the ‘68 and it was founded by most of the radicals of that period so the work of Enzo Mari was really part of the DNA of the school."
Andrea Trimarchi
Simone Farresin, Formafantasma
He never really focus only on the formal side of design but he focused also on the ethical side of the discipline
"On the table of our office sits the Java container that Mari designed in 1960. It can be used for either parmesan or sugar and the reason why we love it is that I've described it as 'a reflection on labor’. When he designed it he didn’t want to have any hinges because he didn’t want to have somebody in a production line placing hinges all day. I thought that was extremely typical of him and of his thinking in the best possible way."
Simone Farresin
"Another project that we love is Proposta per la lavorazione della ceramica. There, he is doing the opposite... there is ceramic but again when producing it is always about repetition so he is basically producing modules of small pieces of ceramic and he made instructions to the ceramists and the ceramists could really play with them and he was again taking away alienation within work."
Andrea Trimarchi
1968, Java, Fondazione Jacqueline Vodoz e Bruno Danese, Milano
1973, Proposte lavorazione della ceramica, Serie Samos, modello S
Formafantasma is the designer duo composed of Andrea Trimarchi and Simone Farresin. Their work explores issues such as the role of design in folk crafts, the relationship between tradition and local culture, critical approaches to sustainability, and the meaning of objects as cultural channels.
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