Alain Elkann Interviews

CHAMPION OF THE REMARKABLE. Luke Syson is Director and Marlay Curator of the Fitzwilliam Museum at Cambridge University since 2019.  From antiquity to the present day, the Fitzwilliam houses a world-renowned collection of over half a million beautiful works of art, masterpiece paintings and historical artefacts.

NOMADIC BY NATURE. Hindou Oumarou Ibrahim is an advocate for the greater inclusion of indigenous peoples and their knowledge and traditions in the global movement to fight the effects of climate change. On September 1st 2022 she received the International DVF Award in Venice.

A MOTHER TELLING STORIES OF WAR. Clarissa Ward is a British-American television journalist. She is currently chief international correspondent for CNN. She was with CBS News, based in London, and before her CBS News position, Ward was a Moscow-based news correspondent for ABC News programs.

THE LANGUAGE OF EMOTION. Marco Balich is the Founder, Chairman and Chief Creative Officer of Balich Wonder Studio. In 1989 Balich organised the extraordinary Pink Floyd concert on a floating stage in his birthplace of Venice that was broadcast on TV to 100 million viewers worldwide. Today he is credited with directing and producing a record number of 14 Olympic Ceremonies and 12 Regional Games, as well as producing several other large-scale events all around the globe.

A SCENT OF WISDOM. Moin Mir is a London based writer of Indian origin. His work is influenced by his grandfather, who was a scholar of Sufism. Mir’s most recent book The Lost Fragrance of Infinity is an inspirational story about the rebuilding of a young man's life, conveyed through Sufi metaphor and symbolism.

A PLACE OF MIRACLES. Sylvain Bellenger was born in Normandy, took degrees in philosophy and in art history, directed the Girodet Museum and the Castle of Blois in France, and then moved to the United States. He held curatorial posts at the Cleveland Museum of Art and the Art Institute of Chicago and then in 2014 was appointed Director at Capodimonte in Naples by Dario Franceschini, the Italian minister of culture.

PIERCING THE MYTHS. James Reginato is a writer-at-large for Vanity Fair. In his book, published by Simon & Schuster, titled GROWING UP GETTY, The Story of America’s Most Unconventional Dynasty, he has rectified many popular misunderstandings about one of the world’s wealthiest family dynasties.

PICASSO THE MAGUS. Diana Widmaier-Picasso recently published a book with anthropologist Philippe Charlier (Gallimard) titled Picasso Sorcier and curated an exhibition about her mother Maya with Emilia Philippot that is on until December 31, 2022 at Musée Picasso-Paris. She has also had a presentation during Couture Week in Paris of her other activity, which is jewelry. In 2017 she co-founded with Roy Sebag a company called Menē which specialises in 24 karat gold and platinum jewelry.

OPENING UP THE LOUVRE. Donatien Grau is an editor, scholar and museum executive. He was head of contemporary programs at Musée d’Orsay, Paris, and recently moved to the Louvre, where his continuing mission is to oversee the implementation of contemporary projects that echo the museum's collections.

RECALIBRATING THE WINDSORS. Andrew Lownie is an historian and a literary agent. His most recent book is Traitor King, the Scandalous Exile of the Duke and Duchess of Windsor.

FIGURATIVELY ABSTRACT. The artist Bernardo Siciliano was born in Rome in 1969. He lives and works in New York and is best known for his depictions of urban landscapes and nude figures. The son of writer Enzo Siciliano, who was a close friend of Alberto Moravia and Pier Paolo Pasolini, Bernardo Siciliano is a multi-award winning artist in both Italy and America. His work has been represented by the Aicon Gallery in New York since 2016.

Flesh is my medium. Miles Greenberg is a New York-based performance artist and sculptor. His work consists of large-scale, sensorially immersive and often site-specific environments revolving around the physical body in space.

BUILDING TOWARDS EQUALITY. Alejandro Aravena is a Chilean architect and executive director of the firm Elemental S.A. In 2016 he won the Pritzker Architecture Prize, architecture’s highest honour, and was the director and curator of the Architecture Section of the 2016 Venice Biennale. From 2000 to 2005 he was a visiting professor at Harvard Graduate School of Design. An International Fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects, he was appointed Chair of the Pritzker Architecture Prize Jury as of March 2021.

AN INCREDIBLE SUCCESS. Roberto Cicutto is President of La Biennale di Venezia, overseeing the city’s prestigious art and architecture biennials as well as the film, dance, theatre and music festivals.

TOP QUALITY. Fabrizio Moretti’s new London gallery in Duke Street, St. James’s, will open on July 1st 2022. The gallery will focus on Old Master paintings and sculptures for top clients and museums.

SAVING THE PLANET ONE MEAL AT A TIME. Dior DeCupper is CEO of Meatless Farm, a plant based food company in a fast growing and purpose led industry.

AN ENTREPRENEUR WITH IMPACT. Brent Hoberman is Co-Founder and Chairman of Founders Factory, Founders Forum and firstminute Capital. He co-founded lastminute.com in 1998, was CEO from its inception, and sold it in 2005 to Sabre for $1.1bn. He also co-founded Made.com which went public in 2021 for $1.1bn.

THE FLAYING OF MARSYAS. Mary Weatherford is known for her large paintings incorporating neon lighting tubes. The Flaying of Marsyas, the exhibition of her new paintings at the Museo di Palazzo Grimani in Venice, runs through the 59th Biennale until November 27th, 2022. These paintings examine the ways in which time has worked on Marsyas and on Titian’s famous painting of the same name.

THE IMPORTANCE OF A CLASSICAL LEGACY. The writer Marina Valensise was recently appointed CEO of the Italian National Institute of Ancient Drama (Istituto Nazionale del Dramma Antico, INDA) which manages the ancient Greek Theatre of Syracuse.

SILENT MESSAGES. Delfina Delettrez Fendi is a designer and jeweller based in Rome, Italy. She founded her namesake label Delfina Delettrez in 2007.