An Exhibition Curated by Hans Ulrich Obrist with Francesca Giacomelli
Fashion: Alexander McQueen. Art: Ai Weiwei. Design: Enzo Mari. The Design Museum does it all. CEO Tim Marlowe opens the press launch celebrating the work of the late Italian designer: “Enzo Mari is an absolutely major figure in 20th and 21st century design. He’s one of the giants of the design world and yet in this country, present company excepted, he’s nowhere near as well known as he should be. This is the first solo show of any note dedicated to Enzo Mari. It’s about time it happened. There are over 300 objects in the exhibition. My own reductive view is I feel it’s like walking into the mind of a great creative thinker. That’s my initial response to it. This is a show that’s been an extraordinary collaboration … beginning at the Milan Triennale. But now at the Design Museum it’s the essence of that show. Mari’s whole view I think of the world of design was that design should be in service to society rather than in service to design per se. This is a great thing to remind ourselves in a world of mass production. It’s essential for us that we do these shows and we start to bring to a broader audience not just the designers that aren’t well enough known but also the ideas they embody. Mari is one of the great originals in the history of design as well as design itself.”
