The landscape festival at Villa San Michele

Villa San Michele extends the art exhibition Il Festival del Paesaggio until 16 November. The works of five internationally renowned contemporary artists, including Emilia and Ilya Kabakov and Henrik Håkansson, give the garden and the facade of the Villa a new dimension.

From 9 September, art collectors and a curious public will take part in the Landscape Festival at Villa San Michele. The Capri festival is organized for the sixth consecutive year by Neapolitan curators Arianna Rosica and Gianluca Riccio. For the first time almost all the works of Villa San Michele are exhibited. This was made possible in part through funding from the Catarina and Sven Hagströmer Foundation and other Swedish private donors. The initiative represents a further step in the process of increasing efforts to promote Sweden and transform Villa San Michele into a point of reference for contemporary culture.
Most notable in this year's exhibition is the installation The Observer by Emilia and Ilya Kabakov, housed in the excavated bedroom (cubiculum) from the early Roman Empire in the garden of the villa. This unique space becomes a dining room in a Ukrainian house where a man and a woman dine with two angels. A short distance away is a log cabin where the viewer can get a peek at the eerily sunny scene through binoculars.
Inside the museum, Marinella Senatore's video The School of Narrative Dance - Ongoing Documentary is shown, which opens with a scene from Malmö with a group of young women singing. Swedish artist Henrik Håkansson continues to explore nature with a new work from the Butterfly Paintings series, a canvas whose color and appearance changes every day depending on the weather and exploring animals and insects. Valerie Krause from Germany shows a concrete and glass installation in the atrium of the Villa, while the facade is illuminated at night by a neon installation by the Italian Patrick Tuttofuoco. Many of the works are made especially for the location. Seeing and experiencing them in conjunction with the Villa's unique setting and atmosphere, reinforces the emotional dimension of the exhibition.
The Landscape Festival returns to Villa San Michele next year with new artists. In conjunction with the festival, a photographic exhibition by Lotta Antonsson takes place in the garden pavilion of Villan, Olivetum, I Am A Woman.