Agitador con causa
February 9th 2021
Arquitectura y Diseño, Alfredo Häberli
My Guest-Column on an article about Enzo Mari in the latest issue of «Arquitectura y Diseño». Many thanks to Soledad Lorenzo & David Quesada for the opportunity to write about «El Hombre que me hizo observar el Mundo»:
I am a great admirer of anonymous objects. These are artefacts that have evolved over time or objects that someone has invented to improve or invent something very specific because it was not there before. I am also a great admirer of people who are constantly searching for truth and honesty and who fearlessly take up this challenge. I am also a great admirer of people who can give their creations a soul, with a beauty and poetry that needs no language, even if there is much to say. I am an admirer, and I am blessed to discover and experience these wonders again and again - and I have been able to meet people who see and understand this in the same way. That is why I am a great admirer of Enzo Mari and I have had the time to study his enormously complex, multifaceted and distinct oeuvre. I have had the pleasure of meeting Enzo Mari in person.
On my wall hangs a signed serigraph with hammer & sickle, on the bookshelf are countless books, including some that Enzo Mari photocopied for me himself. Putrella lies on the table, the 16 Animali are stacked in the glass cabinet, a marble vase and his ashtray stand on the sideboard - with me as a non-smoker. I occasionally sit on the «Box Chair» or «Sof-Sof Chair», certain furniture fragments, such as the table leg of «Filo di Ferro», serve as a reference for me and the magazine Domus No. 807 from 1980 lies on the «Thinking Man's Chair» in my field of vision.
I am a great admirer of the work, the person and the human being Enzo Mari. In between, however, I had to distance myself from our meetings and discussions because it was too touching for me, because his observations on our world made him incredibly angry. Enzo Mari commanded me to look out of the window and look at the world, the world at Piazza Baracca 10 by his studio, and let him know how we were doing...! I was lucky to have just seen the exhibition in Milan – and my happiness remains in having made Enzo Mari smile.