The third edition of 'The Sphinx's Lounge' is underway

It starts again Friday August 26 to Saturday 28, the third edition of the review The Sphinx's Lounge of Villa San Michele in Anacapri: meetings on cinema, literature and art.

The theme of the event is freedom with an emphasis on art and the world LGBT +.

"The basic question we asked ourselves – underlines the superintendent of Villa San Michele Kristina Kappelin - is what art, music, literature, theater, cinema and culture in a broad sense would have been without the contribution of homosexual identity. In addition, the festival wants to pay homage to the various "limitless" and avant-garde characters, both for their lifestyle and for their open-mindedness, who have made the history of Capri, such as the Wolcott-Perry sisters, Jacques d'Adelswärd Fersen, the incredible Marchesa Luisa Casati Stampa and Axel Munthe, who, in his Villa, welcomed Oscar Wilde when he was expelled from the Quisisana hotel because he was in the company of his lover Alfred Douglas, known as Bosie".

Among the guests of this edition: Eva Robin's, the bishop Mary Victoria Longhitano, the full cast of the film “Masculine singular”, the granddaughter of the founder of Villa San Michele, Katriona Munthe, the designer Monica Forster, the dancers Denny Lodi e Constantine Emperor, the drag queen Cristina Prenestina, the artist Michael Iodice.

The Salotto della Sfinge is a festival that highlights the word, through informal meetings with its protagonists, dialogues that create a more immediate comparison, and therefore a more active participation, with the public. Like a happening between friends, in one of the rooms of their home, writers, directors, actors, talk about their work, reveal the behind the scenes, satisfy the curiosity of the audience.

Organized by the Axel Munthe Foundation, with the patronage of the Consulate of Sweden, the Campania Region, the City of Capri, the Municipality of Anacapri, Siae, the Embassy of Sweden, Copenhagen 2021 WorldPride & EuroGames and in collaboration with Capri Palace Jumeirah, and Staiano Tour Capri.

It opens Thursday August 26 at 19,00 pm with the exhibition entitled “Carving a love story” by the award-winning Swedish designer Monica Forster. A project developed together with Zanat, the Bosnian design brand, of which Förster has been art director since its international launch in 2015. A company founded on the tradition of wood carving for four generations, inscribed on the UNESCO cultural heritage list.

Monica Förster's designs for Zanat have won prestigious awards and have been published in leading international design and architecture magazines.

The exhibition will feature unique pieces of furniture and small objects, representing Zanat's exceptional craftsmanship. The show will focus on functional modern sculptures handcrafted from solid wood. The selection of pieces will include special editions inspired by the spectacular Villa San Michele, such as a large custom-made version of the iconic Nera bowls, as well as new products such as the Sky mirrors and the Unity coffee tables, with special stains and carvings chosen specifically for this project.

The drag queen performance will follow at 20,00pm. Cristina Prenestinaka Francesco Pierri, who will perform in a musical show dedicated to the great divas of the past and present, paying homage to LGBT+ culture. Francesco has worked as a social worker and in kindergartens. Now he is an artist and, among his performances, there is also the reading of gender fairy tales to children.I decided to read fairy tales to the little ones - he tells - because I am convinced that the new generations have the ability to change the world. There is so much prevention on everything, and then we don't want to talk in schools about what could happen one day, perhaps, to one of them. It is necessary to teach the value of "diversity" and sexual fluidity".

Friday August 27th at 19,00 pm Meeting with the actress Eva Robin's and the Anglican bishop Mary Victoria Longhitano. Two characters, apparently distant, yet very close, will confront each other on the themes related to the freedom to love. Robin's will be the protagonist of a theatrical reading and will tell her life, her beginnings, the LGBT world in the show.

Maria Vittoria Longhitano is the first female bishop in Italy. Her Church is the Episcopal Church, a branch of the Anglican family with a Catholic outlook without the obligation of celibacy. Known to the general public for having been chosen by Piero Chiambretti for his television programs, Maria Vittoria Longhitano has always fought against prejudice. “I was ten years old when, in my Enna, the parish priest told me that I could never become a priest".

Married, mother of a 5-year-old girl, she boasts many firsts: she was the first woman priest ordained in Italy, in 2010, the first to celebrate gay religious weddings and the first episcopal vicar for Italian-speaking communities. For many years at the helm of the “Gesù Buon Pastore” in Milan, she returned to Sicily to the Madonna del Carmelo parish in Catania.

Famous Italian trans, Eva Robin's – born Roberto Coatti – initially pursued her career in the world of music with the pseudonym Cassandra. She later chose the name Eva because of the resemblance that her friends attributed to Diabolik's companion, the thief Eva Kant, and her surname from the writer Harold Robbins. She has worked for a long time in the cinema. Among others, she was directed by Dario Argento in Tenebre and by Alessandro Benvenuti in Belle al Bar, where she had a leading role. She made her television debut in 1987, in the programs Lupo Solitario, L'araba fenice and Primadonna. She continued with the theater, interpreting several plays – from La voce umana to 8 donne e un mistero – throughout the 2000s.

The evening will close with a performance by choreographers and dancers Constantine Emperor e Denny Lodi. A pas de deux – awarded at the international Tripudium Ballet competition in 2015 – to the tune of “La cura”, a song by Franco Battiato, sung by Noemi, which tells the story of the tormented love of two young people, in a society not always ready to accept their union.

Costantino Imperatore and Denny Lodi owe their meeting to the show “Amici di Maria De Filippi” in 2011. Both of them get to the evening show and Denny wins that year’s edition in the dance section. Since then their friendship has grown stronger and during the Anacapri festival they will demonstrate their artistic collaboration.

Saturday August 28th at 19,00 pm opening of the exhibition “Axel Munthe and the pilgrims of beauty” curated by Katriona Munthe introduced by the actors of Francesco Gori’s company who will perform Tableau Vivant. This will be followed by a chat with Robert Fàbregas, director of the Casa de Cultura Les Bernardes.

Dedicated to writers and photographers from Northern Europe who spent long periods in Italy between the end of the 19th century and the first decades of the 20th century, a land from which they drew inspiration. The exhibition is organized by Katriona Munthe, psychotherapist and granddaughter of the doctor-writer Axel Munthe, with the contribution of the Catalan intellectual Roberto Fabregas.

Writings, autographs and unpublished works will be exhibited, and illustrations by characters from the Anglo-Saxon world such as Norman Lewis, David Herbert Lawrence, Kevin Andrews, Henry Miller, Patrick Leigh Fermor, Lawrence Durrell, as well as the artistic photographs of the German Wilhelm Von Gloeden, taken in Taormina where had settled in 1878.

The works of contemporary artists such as Michele Iodice and Massimiliano Körnmuller are also presented, as well as photographs by the Catalan Jordi Mestre i Verges.

All 20.00 hours Meeting with the cast of the film “Maschile Singolare”, in the presence of the directors Matteo Pilati and Alessandro Guida, the screenwriter Giuseppe Paternò Raddusa and the actors Giancarlo Commare and Lorenzo Adorni. Speeches by Gianmarco Saurino, Michela Giraud and Eduardo Valdarnini.

"Masculine singular“, first work of Alexander Guide e matthew pilati released on Amazon Prime Video on June 4, 2021, tells the story of Antonio, a thirty-year-old forced to question all his certainties when he is abandoned by his husband, on whom he depends both materially and psychologically: he will have to find a new home, a job, new friends and a new purpose in life.

The universal theme of the search for oneself thus unfolds in a daily life with clear LGBT+ hues, from which however there are no disturbances or doubts, secrets to hide and in which the characters move with pride and full acceptance. Produced by Rufus Film and written by the two directors together with Giuseppe Paternò Raddusa, Maschile Singolare stars Giancarlo Commare, Eduardo Valdarnini, Gianmarco Saurino, Michela Giraud and Lorenzo Adorni.

Previewed at Lovers Film Festival of Turin and winner of the Audience Award at the Ortigia Film Festival, the film – welcomed with great enthusiasm by spectators and critics – will soon be distributed in Europe and North America thanks to Vision Distribution.

The event is free and open to the public, subject to availability. Green pass required. For information and reservations: tel. 0818371401, mail events@sanmichele.org