While the whole world talks about great sacrifices, tears and blood, he, Costantino della Gherardesca, pop-snob TV presenter, comes out with a book that, at first glance, might seem like a slap in the face of the crisis and emergency. But actually The religion of luxury (Rizzoli) is a manual not to cry on yourself, not to bask in moralism and false goodness and rather open up to the world without prejudice, racism and sovereignty of any kind. He tells us in a zoomed doc, offering us surprising sympathies and points of view.
Your book in such a moment is a provocation.
Emanuele Severino said that Italy was raised by two mothers, the PCI and the Church, who protected it from globalization. But I am in favor of globalization. Because of her two mothers, Italy has great diffidence towards luxury, and this creates difficulty in opening up. I know that mine is a minority voice, but I would like to provoke some reaction to the new cultural and economic closures that many profess loudly.
What is this book?
It is an entertainment book, a praise of asexual, chaste melancholy luxury ...
You also speak of a strange category, "litrosexuals".
Litrosessauli are those who get excited in wanting those who reject them.
Are you a litrosexual?
I'm just a homosexual who doesn't tow.
I feel some enjoyment in the repulsion.
It is something that makes me laugh, the greatest luxury is being able to detach yourself from what surrounds you and laugh at the squalor and misfortunes.
But exactly what luxury are you talking about in the book?
Not that of yachts or numbered champagne bottles, but that of mental perversion. Think of an artist like Jack Smith, who waited to do his performances when nobody was there.
But you are a sophisticated entertainment author, you love that there are people: you are not elitist like Jack Smith, if your program has a low share you suffer more than when you don't trail.
Sure, I like to entertain, but mostly I like to entertain myself. However, my book is a praise of unbridled elitism. But you have to understand that my goal is to earn as much as possible and then get out of the boxes and go to live somewhere in an elitist way.
Another luxury that you think is morally shelved?
In the book I take the very risky luxury of rehabilitating controversial figures. In particular Michael Jackson, who lived before everyone's eyes long before social media. Today he is seen as a great musician, but mostly as a pedophile. He lived first of all the post-racial era changing his connotations, his smoky sexuality was thirty years ahead of today's asexuals. And it lived a world-famous level that no longer exists.
You also speak of Mother Teresa of Calcutta, whom the famous journalist Christopher Hitchens considered a criminal.
Sure! Mother Teresa had very convoluted theories, such as the suffering of the sick improved the world. Catholics, unlike Hitchens, consider her a saint. I don't consider her a saint or a criminal. I find that one who says "the world benefits from the suffering of poor people" is a conceptual performance artist, better than Marina Abramovic, who in comparison is like one of those who do watercolors in front of Buckingham Palace. I bought a letter from Mother Teresa at an auction and hung it in the middle of other works of art from my collection.
