having worked on more than 2000 projects which have marked design history, enzo mari is probably italy’s most provocative designer. as a social commitment, through developing functional objects, he creates ‘products’ that celebrate an utopic world and the dignity of not alienated work. as art pieces they are brutally honest and at the same time beautiful to look at. birgit lohmann, designboom’s editor in chief, has studied industrial design under tutor enzo mari and directly after university has collaborated with him on various design projects for many years. one of her ‘masters’ favorite projects is his ‘autoprogettazione’ series of 1974.
‘sedia 1- chair’ is the first object from mari’s thought-provoking project ‘autoprogettazione’ to go into production with finnish furniture company artek. the original idea consisted of a series of ‘do-it-yourself’ instructions on how to construct the various pieces of furniture. now, artek offers customers to purchase a set of pre-cut pine wood boards, nails and instructions…
artek will be celebrating its 75 years of art and technology production with a presentation at spazio rossana orlandi. meanwhile at the triennale museum mari will show a short documentary produced by artek, which explains the concept behind ‘autoprogettazione’ and which demonstrates the building steps for ‘sedia 1’.
enzo mari demonstrating how to construct ‘sedia 1’
mari nailing the pine wood components into place
mari nailing the pine wood components into place
enzo mari attaching the seat back
‘sedia 1’ – complete
enzo mari with ‘sedia 1’
all images by juoko lehtola
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I think Enzo has produced a very interesting piece but:
In an age of electronic communication why not just email people the plans – and charge them a royalty. I’m not going to have Artek ship be some nails and easily produced pieces of wood all the way from Finland, when I can source the materials in my own country and do it myself. The Embodied Energy of the freight will surely be more than that of the materials…. have they thought about this or does eveybody think Artek produces a “special pine” and it’s worth the extra price?
Hey alo! no you are not!
Am i the only one who thinks this is a joke? I mean look at that chair! I don’t even want to know how much you’ll have to pay for this pile of wood.
will these phoney ‘salt of the earth’ types please just buy the porsche that they are dying to and have done with it
Im afraid the only thought it provoked in my mind was ‘why’?
and social-commentary wise, ‘how do you say B&Q in italian?’
great Enzo
so beautiful…so beautiful…..