spirituality 26.pdf

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spirituality - lesson 26: enzo mari

this lesson is about the italian designer enzo mari and how scientific rigourmakes it possible to question antiquated cultures in an attempt to grasp the truemeaning of things.

maris art and design work serves to convey meaning. he fully uses the theprinciples of dialectic: thesisis, anthithesis, synthesis. contestations are recordsof that ideological and formal commitment that emerges constantly in marisapproach to work. his researches into symbols, the symbolic charges of hisworks reveal a systematic approach of a scientific treatise.

for mari work appears as the moment when the experience of art and all realityconfront each other dialectically, always suspended between two extremes:reality (often a situation to be refuted) and the utopistic vision (how it should be).it is not just a matter of abstract statements, out of any real context, but alwaysrelated to a personal contingent reality, ones personal desire to denounce andclarify ones ideological choice which explains the motivations. he presents amodel inviting fellow artists and designers to 1-declare their own utopian vision

of the future of society, 2-define the strategy they retain useful for the creation ofthe utopia, 3-say which tactical stage of this strategy they have reached and 4-position the research work conducted in that tactical stage'.

labyrinth -there are no alternatives, serigraph, 1967

seven dwarfs

enzo mari in his art installation dialogue between pheidias, galileo, duchamp, theseven dwarfs and the idiot, exhibited at the venice biennial in 1986, says: thereis nostalgia for pheidias who was able to reconcile the objective with the sacred,touching the absolute in the representation. there is respect and admiration forgalileo who accomplished the painful act of separating the objective from the


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sacred, dispelling the illusory stratagem of representation. duchamp perpetratesthe inevitable historical catastrophe, denying in short objectivity, the sacred andrepresentation. we are the seven dwarves in love with snow white (art?), theillusion of what is now pointless representation, narcissistically placing ourselvesat its centre. the idiot, with his tragic common sense understands the problemand hopes for the return of the absolute, over and above representation, in theforce of a new concept of god-nature.

enzo mari in his art installation dialogue between pheidias, galileo, duchamp, the

seven dwarves and the idiot, at the venice biennial in 1986. here the speechbubble says : today, we represent ourselves subjectively, because of theabsence of idea. -for the greek philosopher plato ideas are subsistent realities,distinct both from the mind that possesses them and the material objects inwhich they appear. ideas are eternal, immovable. opposed to the world of ideasthere is chaos, the element which receives the form. KITSCH!

mirrorsin his art installation allegory of dignity a long mirror with a row of prie-dieuimplies the harsh statement of a call to dignity urging a practice of answering firstand foremost to oneself which confirms the rejection of forms of delegation. thistheme has already been explored in an earlier installation entitled modulo. againthe subject is a man in front of a mirror. an invitation to face your reflectiveimage, an experience of void and absence, a difficult exercise of the mindreflecting on itself. another work of many similar research elements is marisantiTV, from 1991, an artwork that stimulates thought and awareness. thespectator is expected to participate actively. it consist of a tiny TV screensurrounded by a big mirror, relating you to the TV transmission of shows, news,whatever.


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allegory of dignity art installation, 1988

modulo, art installation, 1967


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inside the modulo, art installation, 1967.

ecology

we know that much of the price we pay for bottled water or other drinks, as toofor detergents or other consumer products, goes towards the cost of packagingand the label. these are condensed advertising messages. we are paying morefor these messages than for the contents. mari, in his ecolo project uses PETbottles metaphorically. the never ending proliferation of new forms without newcontent. forms last longer in our minds than disposable products. theuncontrolled proliferation of the forms that constitute our cities and our

perception. the ironic instructions of the ecolo flower vase are therefore anallegory of a happy, but not equivocal, coexistence with modern decay.

ecolo could be obtained as follows- by purchasing the distinctive label of authenticity and the instruction bookletwith maris sketches. you can make the vases by experimenting with differentcuts.

- by purchasing a vase already made by the famed designer, at a cost more than70% higher than the first option.

- by purchasing an art collection in limited edition, where each vase is not onlyhand-picked by enzo mari and cut into iconic shapes, but also hand-signed anddated. contained in an exclusive wooden box. cost was 700% higher than thesecond option. (the italian design company alessi produced about 100 boxes,and presented them in milan with a live show spectacle by mari himself(producing vases). they sold out immediately. today they are collectors piecesand are re-sold in auctions... do you see similarity to the contemporary artscene?


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ecolo making instructions - sketch by enzo mari



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ecolo, 1995set of four flower vases made of used PET plastic containers.produced by alessi in limited edition display boxes cm 50.7 x cm 29.4 - h cm 10.

doing is thinking with your hands

mari does not believe in the myth of the good savage, he believes that we live in


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the megalonecropolis of neo-capitalism like robinson on his island. in order tosurvive he makes tools with which to build a place to live in. mari is right,everyone should design: after all it is the best way to avoid being designed. whatintellectual work or artistic research must not produce is the prefiguration offalsely definitive, reactionary and ahistorical comportmental models, it musthighlight the contradictions in this world of ostriches he says.

spirituality 26.pdf

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