Merdolino

A polite, succulent cactus made from coloured plastic in the most private room in the house, which discreetly hides its real function. But for those who are familiar with its name, its function is soon revealed: it's a bathroom item that's used for toilet-cleaning. Giovannoni camouflages the image of the toilet brush by making it unrecognizable, but at the same time he denounces its function by naming the unmentionable, thus provoking the priggish public. Merdolino is no doubt the most "scandalous" object in Giovannoni's product range, and when it was released the critics were quick to point to it as an example of the definitive and irreversible "barbarity" of design. But all the furore it caused actually amplified the echo of its author's successes, now on his dizzy rise towards the Olympus of Design.