A surreal visit to Toiletpaper Magazine Headquarter

If you’ve come to Milan for Design Week and feel like your brain is overloaded with clean lines and conceptual chairs, this is the place for you, the headquarters of Toiletpaper Magazine.

Via Giuseppe Balzaretti 4, Milan

Thanks to my friend Bella, who always finds the most unexpected places in Milan. This time she suggested “Let’s go to the Toiletpaper editorial office”. I was surprised: “What, is that possible?” It turned out that it was very possible. Especially during Design Week, when the editorial office opens its doors to everyone.

You remember Maurizio Cattelan, right? A provocative, bold artist. So Toiletpaper was co-created by him and photographer Pierpaolo Ferrari.

This is the actual workplace of the editorial office. But at the same time, it is a total installation, performance, and playroom for adults who grew up on glossy magazines and internet memes. From the outside, it’s a bright remarkable building on Via Balzaretti. Once you step inside, you find yourself in the surreal universe of Maurizio Cattelan and Pierpaolo Ferrari.

Crazy interior

Every inch here is a photograph. From floor to ceiling, including furniture, carpets, and toilets, everything is designed in the provocative, ironic, and absurdly glossy style of Toiletpaper. You are not only allowed to touch, sit, open, and interact with objects, you are encouraged to do so. You can lie on a bed, sit in a lip chair, or spin around in a room whose walls are covered with their famous eye pattern.

Yeah, go ahead and grab your phone. You’ll want to take pictures here non-stop. Every corner is a ready-made photo location. This place was born for Instagram, but it still retains an aura of artistic value.

Many of Toiletpaper’s images have become real design objects thanks to a collaboration with the Italian brand Seletti. You can eat from a plate with a fly in your food or drink from their iconic mug and feel conneted to the legendary Toiletpaper.

Bocca Lips Sofa

The famous lip-shaped armchair that often appears in their shoots. But it's not their original design! The Bocca chair was created in 1970 by Studio 65 and inspired by the surreal lips of actress Mae West, which Salvador Dali depicted in his work “The Face of Mae West (used as a surreal room)” (1934-35).

Toiletpaper loves such redesigns and appropriations. They take an already iconic pop art object and place it in their own context, stripping it of its original glamour and adding their own share of kitsch and absurdity. It’s a game with the history of design and art.

No Words Philosophy

In Toiletpaper magazine, you won’t find a single article, interview, or caption. Only images. This was a conscious manifesto by the founders — artist Maurizio Cattelan and photographer Pierpaolo Ferrari.

The name “Toiletpaper”

Shocking. PROVOCATIVE. It symbolizes something disposable, quickly consumed and discarded, which is largely what modern media and consumer culture is.

Their art is a mirror that they hold up to the currents of this culture. The images in the magazine are bright and attractive, but often carry a hint of something disturbing, disposable, and excessive, just like the glossy magazine itself.

Shop

Here you can buy magazines, books, limited edition collaborations, and branded merchandise that will become your personal piece of this madness.

Visit their headquarter if you get a chance.