What do manufacturer IB Rubinetterie, designer Maurizio Duranti, and assorted clergy across Western Europe have in common? They each send certain celestial benedictions skyward every day, all in the course of their respective vocations. The difference is that the latter are engaged in a spiritual search for the mysteries of creation, while the former are celebrating the mystery of the creation of a particularly auspicious bathroom faucet.

My God! Designed by Maurizio Duranti for IB Rubinetterie.

Aptly named “My God!” (in Italian that’s “Oh mio Dio!”), Duranti’s latest achievement in functional art is a sculptural stunner. “Carved from a single block,” the piece is curvaceous yet angular, hard at the edges yet temptingly tactile. It features an integrated push-down lever that renders the faucet one of the more compact numbers I’ve ever seen. And it sports a thin, horizontally-oriented spout that projects water in a cascading stream–the overall effect is a synergy of the organic and the constructed, very like certain millennial conceptions of the deity.

Both Duranti and IB Rubinetterie are close enough to the Vatican for someone amidst its cloistered walls to take notice. The latter operates out of Sarezzo, Italy, where they’ve “chosen research as a cardinal point for directing our production… our philosophy is to create objects far from market processes and ephemeral principles, designed to dialogue with time.” Duranti, for his part, spends his days in Milan, an ideal intersection for art and design, a dialogue that the designer engages with every day. Though for the last 20 years his focus has been industrial design, he’s internationally lauded for his artistic approach–museums including Chicago’s Athanaeum, London’s Victoria and Albert, and Tokyo’s Bukamura exhibit his designs among their permanent collections.

We’ll soon see how the world responds to his latest effort: Duranti and IB Rubinetterie will show My God! at Salone/Milan Design Week, which is well nigh upon us (April 14-19). One can bet that the purveyors will take advantage of the faucet’s singular avian aesthetic and unconventional name: The preview poster shows My God! in bold relief against a cerulean blue sky. The effect is, well, awe-inspiring, very much in keeping with the piece’s namesake.

Via design(dot)fr.