enzo mari presents 'autoprogettazione' project for artek

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