Enzo Mari

On the little-known “alogrithmic” art of the late Italian polymath designer

The late Italian artist and writer Enzo Mari (1932–2020) is perhaps most famed for his modernist and industrial furniture designs, such as the box chair and the “sof sof” chair, but he produced an expansive oeuvre in art across various mediums. This catalog, published for an exhibition at Galleria Massimo Minini, gathers the artist’s drawings, prints and sculptures. The works in the volume embody the fruits of Mari’s research into “programmed” or “algorithmic” art; he was especially interested in creating works that could be enjoyed diachronically. To that end, he created a series of models consisting of a programmed combination of prefabricated module elements; these sequences visually represent the passage of time. Mari’s extraordinarily methodical, intellectually rigorous approach to all of his work translates exquisitely to his art.