Design curator Paola Antonelli and series host Alice Rawsthorn discuss Mari’s influence on today’s understanding of design in the third episode of Enzo Mari Costellazione. From his project of the Milanese Panettoni to the masterpiece Proposta per un’Autoprogettazione.

"Interestingly I always say to people the same when they ask me 'Why are you so good at design?' I always tell everybody that design is part of normalcy in Italy, so to answer your question I think I have this view of the city of Milan filled with Panettoni, the beautiful traffic order that Mari had designed: it was fantastic, made of concrete and movable around. But actually, I checked the time and they were designed in 1980 so I must have known him before, maybe it was the Danese toys, in particular, the puzzle with all the animals. Maybe he was always part of my life and that's the beauty of that. Maybe I became aware of him when somebody told me 'Hey you know that object, it was designed by this guy Enzo Mari' and he was ever part of me since I started studying design."

Paola Antonelli

"I think we all had the same first choice, Autoprogettazione, because it really is amazing. But I will give my introduction to Proposta per un’Autoprogettazione: it was no furniture, it was the instruction. He decided together with a manufacturer to release this book of instruction for everybody to be able to build their furniture at home, finding standard elements of wood available. It was really about empowering the people, no difference between designer and user. 

My second choice is Il Panettone, especially for eating ice-cream or, as you were on a river, to jump from stone to stone. It had been a feature of Milanese life forever. Think of literally a panettone but made of concrete with a little hook of steel on the top, for a machine to pick it up and move it around: a little habitant of the city.

The other project that I really love is a project that Mari did with Danese and it’s Putrella, it means in Italian a steel beam, and it is transformed, almost as a found object into a beautiful bowl for fruits and it becomes a poetic part of your home."

Paola Antonelli

"Wishful thinking can translate into wishful acting. Clearly, even though designers alone will not solve everything, they can spark a dramatic change in behaviors. 'Designers and artists are able to formulate, through artifacts and concepts, urgent political questions that can not rely solely on regular processes to enter public discourse. In regards to the environment and all associated concerns, in particular, state policy is driven to make reformations by the priorities that researchers, designers, activists, scientists, architects, and citizens set forth'."

Paola Antonelli, Broken Nature, an introductive essay from the catalog dedicated to Broken Nature

Based in Berlin, Cucula explains its website, “is an association, a workshop, a platform for intercultural exchange and an experimental, vocational preparation program. Up to eight young refugees are acquiring basic skills in craft and design in Cucuta's workshop at any given time. The workshop is connected to an educational program in which trainees prepare for future apprenticeships and jobs. Refugeeinvolvement at Cucula can take many shapes, including program participants, interns, and employees. Cucula also offers everyday support and legal advice.” Enzo Mari granted Cucula the rights to produce the Autoprogettazioned designs.