Luc Tuymans on the Problem with Today’s Art World - 238 - Alain Elkann Interviews
Alain Elkann Interviews
A LINEAGE OF THE REAL AND THE AUTHENTIC. Luc Tuymans is a Belgian visual artist, many of whose paintings explore people’s relationship with history and confront their ability to ignore it. World War II and the horrors of the Holocaust is a recurring theme in his many faceted work. Tuymans is a key figure of the generation of European figurative painters who gained renown at a time when many believed the medium had lost its relevance due to the new digital age. “I want the feeling of doing something special” “For young artists now, it is very strenuous and very difficult”...
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Inside Italy’s Most Romantic Hotels with Marie-Louise Sciò - 237 - Alain Elkann Interviews
Alain Elkann Interviews
CURATING THE VERY DIFFERENT IDENTITIES OF THE PELLICANO HOTELS GROUP. Marie-Louise Sciò is CEO of the Pellicano Hotels group in Italy, which today comprises Hotel Il Pellicano in Porto Ercole in Tuscany, La Posta Vecchia Hotel near Rome, and Mezzatorre Hotel & Thermal Spa in Ischia. The youngest child of hotelier Roberto Sciò, Marie-Louise studied design and architecture at the Rhode Island School of Design in the USA and then worked in interior design beside Massimo Zompa in her native city of Rome before returning to her first love, Hotel Il Pellicano, her father’s establishment...
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Ludovico Einaudi - 236 - Alain Elkann Interviews
Alain Elkann Interviews
SINGING WITH THE PIANO. Ludovico Einaudi is an internationally celebrated pianist and composer. Born in Turin, Ludovico is the son of two exceptional people. His mother, the pianist and composer Renata Aldrovandi, was the daughter of the conductor and composer Wando Aldrovandi and had a great influence on his future life. His father Giulio Einaudi was a famous publisher and chairman of the Giulio Einaudi editore book publishing house. "I went to the North Sea in the Svalbard Islands to make a video and I played in front of a glacier." "There was a strange sensation, like they were...
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Donatien Grau - 235 - Alain Elkann Interviews
Alain Elkann Interviews
EDITING A MAGAZINE OF MAGAZINES. Donatien Grau is a philologist who currently serves as Head of Contemporary Programmes at the Musée du Louvre, Paris, and is also the co-founder and Editor of a new English language magazine called Alphabet. “We all have many lives, and the key to the magazine is that each of those lives includes an artistic element.” “Thinking is always in danger.” “Remaining true to myself and the people who have embraced me is a really crucial thing.”
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Federico Campagna - 234 - Alain Elkann Interviews
Alain Elkann Interviews
SPEAKING TO THE DEFEATED. Federico Campagna is an Italian philosopher based in London. His research concerns the metaphysics, politics and history of world-building. His books are Technic and Magic (Bloomsbury, 2018) and Prophetic Culture (Bloomsbury, 2021) and his next book Otherworlds, Mediterranean Lessons on Escaping History will investigate the history of cosmological imagination during times of crisis in the Mediterranean area. “The values of old are gone, and you have to reinvent your way of life from scratch” “An apocalypse reveals all the things that usually, in your daily life,...
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James Daunt - 233 - Alain Elkann Interviews
Alain Elkann Interviews
A REMARKABLE BOOKSELLER. James Daunt is the founder of the Daunt Books chain in the UK, and has been managing director of Waterstones, the bookshop chain of more than 300 stores, since 2011. In 2019 he also became CEO of Barnes & Noble, the American bookstore chain of some 650 stores. An Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, Daunt was appointed Commander of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2022 Birthday Honours for services to publishing. “The real joy of a bookstore is that it does curate and it does the job of ensuring that readers and customers are browsing the best...
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Laurence des Cars - 232 - Alain Elkann Interviews
Alain Elkann Interviews
A LARGE MUSEUM IS LIKE AN OPERA. Laurence des Cars is a French museum curator and art historian who President Macron appointed President and Director of the Louvre Museum in September 2021, becoming the first woman to hold the position in the establishment’s 228-year history. Her previous role was President of musée d’Orsay and musée de l’Orangerie. Laurence des Cars is the author of several books including ‘The Pre-Raphaelites: Romance and Realism’. “The Louvre is more than a museum. It’s a symbol of France, of Paris.” “We are definitely in a very complex moment, and...
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Graydon Carter - 231 - Alain Elkann Interviews
Alain Elkann Interviews
GOOD GOING. Graydon Carter launched his enjoyable digital weekly newsletter Air Mail in 2019. He was the editor of Vanity Fair for twenty-five years, and under him Vanity Fair won numerous awards. Named to the American Society of Magazine Editors Hall of Fame, he is also an author and editor of books, a producer of plays and documentaries, and a restaurateur. In the newly published memoir When the Going Was Good Graydon recounts how he made his mark as one of society’s most talented editors and shapers of culture. “I’m a very kind person,...
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Guillaume Bonn - 230 - Alain Elkann Interviews
Alain Elkann Interviews
AFRICA: FACING THE FACTS. Guillaume Bonn is a documentary photographer who has commented on conflict, social and environmental issues for the last 25 years. As a contributor to the New York Times and Vanity Fair he covered topics ranging from the conflict in Northern Uganda, the Darfur humanitarian crisis and the ivory trade in African elephants. Bonn grew up in Kenya and his subsequent reporting bought him to 40 countries on the African continent. A Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, he is the author of a beautiful new book Paradise Inc.. “African...
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David Veal - 229 - Alain Elkann Interviews
Alain Elkann Interviews
EDUCATING THE CONSUMER ABOUT COFFEE AND TEA. DAVID VEAL has been deeply involved in both the coffee industry and the tea industry for over 40 years. He is the former Executive Director of the Speciality Coffee Association of Europe and is currently Executive Director of The European Speciality Tea Association, a position he took up in May 2019. “There is a commonality between tea and coffee, and that is education.” “We’re all about promoting speciality tea and fostering a speciality tea community worldwide.” “The path that speciality tea is taking is similar to the one that...
info_outlineEDITING A MAGAZINE OF MAGAZINES. Donatien Grau is a philologist who currently serves as Head of Contemporary Programmes at the Musée du Louvre, Paris, and is also the co-founder and Editor of a new English language magazine called Alphabet.
“We all have many lives, and the key to the magazine is that each of those lives includes an artistic element.”
“Thinking is always in danger.”
“Remaining true to myself and the people who have embraced me is a really crucial thing.”