Inside the Mind of a True Original: Why Rolf Sachs Refuses to Copy - 243 - Alain Elkann Interviews
Alain Elkann Interviews
ALWAYS ON A ROLL. Rolf Sachs is an artist born in Lausanne, Switzerland in 1955 who works across a diverse range of media, from photography, painting, sculpture and installation, to interiors and set design. In 2018 he moved to Rome where he opened a new studio in 2020. From July 17, 2025 to October 25, 2025 the Kunsthalle Schweinfurt in Germany presents Rolf Sachs: be-rühren, his most comprehensive institutional exhibition to date. The title be-rühren is a wordplay on the German verb ‘to touch’, and captures Sachs's focus of a deeply empathetic and sensory...
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The Future of Travel with David Prior - 242 - Alain Elkann Interviews
Alain Elkann Interviews
BUILDING EXPERIENCES FOR LIFE STORIES. David Prior is a travel writer, editor, and the founder of Prior, a travel and media company that curates immersive journeys and offers custom travel planning. He was formerly a contributing editor at Condé Nast Traveler and Vogue Living, and his work has appeared in various publications like T: The New York Times Style Magazine and WSJ. “Australia is the most visceral example of humans’ connection to the power of the land.” “PRIOR has a very global reach and attracts a certain type of person.” “If you want to be involved in...
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Sir John Chipman on the New Global Threats: We Are Not Ready for What’s Coming - 241 - Alain Elkann Interviews
Alain Elkann Interviews
WORKING FOR GLOBAL SECURITY. Sir John Chipman KCMG is Executive Chairman of The International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS). As former Director-General and Chief Executive of the IISS he directed its growth globally as the world’s premier institute providing facts and analysis on international security issues. He developed the IISS role as a convener of vital inter-governmental summits, conceiving and establishing two regional security institutions under IISS auspices: in the Asia-Pacific the IISS Shangri-La Dialogue hosted by Singapore, and in the Middle East the...
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Piers Secunda Turns War Zones into Art - Here’s Why It Matters - 240 - Alain Elkann Interviews
Alain Elkann Interviews
PORTRAYING THE DESTRUCTION OF CULTURE. Piers Secunda studied painting at Chelsea College of Art in London. Since the late nineties he has developed a studio practice using paint in a sculptural manner, rejecting the limitations imposed by the canvas. Piers’ work examines some of the most significant subjects of our time, such as the deliberate destruction of culture. “I make the work so that in the future people can learn from them” “Sometimes people come into art galleries and see my work and cry” “The bottom line is a level of awareness”
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Emily Greenhouse: Leading the New York Review of Books into a New Era - 239 - Alain Elkann Interviews
Alain Elkann Interviews
STANDING FOR CLARITY AND COMPLEXITY. Emily Greenhouse has been the Editor of the prestigious New York Review of Books magazine since 2019. She is the first woman to be sole editor of the magazine, and when she was appointed was the youngest editor in its history. "What we publish is very accessible and very delightful" "We are a very jousty magazine." "It is our job to talk about complex things and allow them to be complex"
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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,...
info_outlineART, SUSTAINABILITY & FUNDRAISING. Victoria Siddall is a non-executive Director of Frieze, a co-founder and trustee of Gallery Climate Coalition, and the Founding Director of Murmur, a new initiative that enables the worlds of visual arts and music to play their part in combatting the climate crisis. A strategic advisor to museums and businesses on art, sustainability and fundraising, Siddall is Chair of the board of trustees of Studio Voltaire, Cultural Trustee of the National Portrait Gallery and a trustee of the Ampersand Foundation UK.
“Frieze Masters was the first fair that I launched and ran as Director.”
“The aim is to unite the art and music industries and channel funds into the most impactful climate initiatives.”
“Artists are really at the heart of the whole art ecosystem, so the investment there is critical.”