Enzo Mari

"I am convinced," writes Enzo Mari at the opening of his autobiography, 25 ways to drive a nail , "that design corresponds to a deep human instinct like survival, hunger, sex. We are a species that wants to change its environment." More than the sequence of events in Mari's life, which is perhaps the book's pretext rather than its end, the driving force of 25 ways ... is the desire to express this principle through theoretical discussions and concrete examples; the desire, so to speak, to manifest the bridge linking design to human life.
The book, edited by Barbara Casavecchia, follows the life of Enzo Mari almost chronologically and is grouped around a few core themes that also provide reference points for his work as a designer: from his apprenticeship when, as a young and inexperienced 'gofer,' he alternates his first design work with odd jobs and even a little fraud as a street vendor, to his relationship with art; from his commitment to centering his work on labor conditions—one of Mari's cornerstones—to the disappointment of seeing his principles ignored or perverted by successive generations. From a purely narrative point of view, the story is captivating. It is, after all, the story of an incredibly talented visionary, whose passion and curiosity lead him through the birth and explosion of one of the core disciplines of the 20th century (in terms of its intellectual charge, in terms of its innovation, in terms of its economic power)—design.