Enzo Mari (1932-2020) was an Italian designer, artist and theorist, as well as being the author of fifteen educational and political books. The following text from the Silvana publishing house for a 2023 book of his drawings writes about him:
"Enzo Mari was an inventor of languages, a constructor of grammars – intended as methods or sets of rules -, deeming these instruments necessary to “communicate knowledge with improved quality and efficiency”. It is impossible to define his discipline or his profession: he is an artist, an industrial designer, a graphic designer, an architect, but also a theorist, a pedagogue, an intellectual, possibly a philosopher, certainly a utopian who knew how to programme quiet revolutions which are, even today, often misunderstood when not totally unknown; these are some of the many facets of a complex and revolutionary personality".
In the same manner that its hard to pin down the man Enzo Mari, it's the same with how to define this book, with his publisher writing the following about this book:
"The See-saw (L'altalena) can be either a book, a game or an entertaining strip to hang up. The concertina-fold pages are full of black and brown stylised animals that chase one another, overlap, leap with their “heavy bodies” onto the ends of the simplest of swings trying to keep their balance. A brightly coloured red and green cover envelops cumbersome elephants, sinuous snakes and statuesque kangaroos. The book does not have words and speaks conceptually to children of quantity, shapes, weight and balance. The first ideas for this book (the limited edition) date from 1961".
An intriguing accordion with these animal shapes with their wooden patina, balancing on each other and fitting together like pieces of a puzzle which they all finally do in the last and perfectly balanced piece!"
26 single-sided pages, individually 9.5" x 6.5", when unfolded 14ft 1".
