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 something that is predictable, don’t get into the travel industry!”

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 IISS Manama Dialogue hosted by Bahrain. “Europe’s strategic personality will be ushered in through NATO’s new spending doors.” “It’s sometimes underestimated how diverse the power centres have become in today’s world. Big companies in particular, having more power than most medium-sized states.” “The proliferation risk is very high right now.”

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”

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"

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” “There’s a big difference between a drawn line and a painted line”

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 in which she grew up. “I curate the whole aesthetic experience of the hotels” “We have Il Pellicano lovers, we have Mezzatorre lovers, and we have La Posta Vecchia lovers, but it’s the same very international clientele” “There’s a magic about it. The region is great, the atmosphere is great”

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 composed by someone from my family, but not me." "The chance to dive into different cultures always enriches myself and my music."

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.”

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, you tend to not notice immediately.” “The world is produced outside of us to a minimal extent. It is produced within us to a maximum extent.”

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 that’s available.“ “The book is ultimately the most satisfying way in which to educate oneself and to illuminate around the issue of interest“ “There are booksellers up and down, particularly in Europe, who are espousing the same principles, which is let the booksellers in each shop run their own bookstores“

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 we are looking for places where we can confront ourselves through a perspective of long time in history.” “I do not think that looking at art should be painful, boring and exhausting. It should be absolutely the contrary to that.”

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, and I treat everybody the same.” “Every editor out there was working at the top of their game, and they were really good, so the competition was fierce.” “Always carry a handkerchief!”

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 governments are struggling, yet they seem to overlook opportunities to improve the lives of their citizens.” “It’s baffling that African governments continue to follow outdated conservation models imposed when national parks were first established. “Politicians view wildlife as existing on pristine land that could easily be transformed into big cities, parking lots, casinos, and supermarkets.”

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 speciality coffee took, but about 20 to 30 years behind.” • David Veal has over 42 years of experience in the coffee and tea industries, initially working in the coffee sector and later becoming the executive director of the European Speciality Tea Association. • Coffee originated in Ethiopia and spread to other regions like Indonesia, India, and Brazil. There are two main varieties of commercially grown coffee - robusta and arabica, with

HUMANISE: A DEEPLY PASSIONATE MANIFESTO. Thomas Heatherwick is a British designer whose varied work over two decades is characterised by its originality, inventiveness and humanity. As the founder and design director of Heatherwick Studio, Thomas now heads a team of over 250 problem solvers dedicated to making the physical world around us better for everyone. This team wants to see a world where the buildings and places around us are radically more joyful, engaging and human. The approach driving everything is to lead from human experience rather than any fixed design belief. "I advocate for servant architecture." "Working with neuroscientists and researchers, I see that once you get to city scale you go into stress when it's plain, flat, shiny, serious, monotonous and anonymous." "It's a real challenge as an adult to keep connected to true common sense."

ART ELEVATES YOU EVERY DAY. Cécile Verdier is President of Christie's France. She graduated from Sciences Po and Art History at Paris IV, before spending 4 years at Christie's as Head of Valuations then moving to the 20th Century department, in parallel of taking the hammer for Christie’s France since the inauguration sale in 2001. From 2008 to 2018, she was heading the 20th Century Design Department globally at Sotheby’s and Vice President of the French office at the end of her tenure. In 2019, she came back to Christie’s as President for France. “An auction house is rightly called a house, not an auction company. We are a home.” “You can hear English being spoken all over the city. Paris definitely became more international.” “There are no bad questions. “How much do you think it will cost?” is always a good question to ask.”

RESTORING AND MAINTAINING EYESIGHT. Professor Sheng Lim is an internationally renowned ophthalmologist and consultant at St Thomas’ Hospital in London.  He was trained in the UK and also spent one year as the International Glaucoma Association’s postdoctoral fellow at the Mayo Clinic, Minnesota. He was promoted to Professor of Ophthalmology (Glaucoma Studies) at King’s College London in 2020, in recognition of his contribution towards ophthalmology research. He is currently the head of ophthalmology research at St Thomas’, and founder of their KCL Frost Eye Research Department, one of the largest ophthalmology clinical trial units in the UK. “My ultimate goal, as a professor in glaucoma research, is to find a cure for glaucoma and prevent blindness.” “Vision is probably one of the most intimate and important sensory organs that a human being has.” “In the UK and Europe we have more choices, better suited for the patients, than they have in America.”

BEAUTIFULLY TRANSFORMING WALLS AND ROOMS. Idarica Gazzoni Frascara’s hometown is Bologna, Italy. After she studied with Van Der Kelen in his painting school in Brussels, Belgium, and learned the technique of faux bois and marbleizing she became a passionate artist, painting rooms and walls and ceilings in Italy and many other countries. In 2009 she founded Arjumand’s World and opened her first showroom for fabrics and wallpapers in Milano. “I fell in love with Arjumand because she was quite extraordinary and had all the details I was looking for.” “All the rules have changed.” “Being so small I cannot be like Zara Home, unfortunately!”

A CROSS DISCIPLINARY WORLD FOR YOUNG ARTISTS. Jonathan Reekie has been Director of Somerset House Trust in London since 2014. During this time, the renovation of the historic site with its grand Renaissance architecture has been completed, including the launch of Somerset House Studios for artist residencies. Reekie has established Somerset House as a home of cultural innovators and in 2025 Somerset House celebrates its 25th birthday, marking its extraordinary transformation to one of London’s best loved cultural spaces and home to one of the largest creative communities in the UK. “Thinking about how artists can help us make a better world” “Bringing artists back into a space in the centre of the city is very crucial if London wants to remain a creative centre.” “If I can help make a better environment for artists to work, think and thrive then I will always feel very fulfilled.”

WORKING WITH THE BRAIN. Alastair Buchan is a British-Canadian doctor who specialises as a clinical neurologist. His main research interest is how to make neuroprotection a reality in the clinic.  He currently holds the Chair of Stroke Research at the University of Oxford. From 2008 until 2017, he served as the Dean of Medicine and the Head of the Medical Sciences Division at the University of Oxford, and then from 2017 on as the university’s Pro-Vice-Chancellor and Head of Brexit Strategy. Working to maintain Oxford’s continued presence in Europe he brokered partnerships with the Universities and hospitals in Berlin and  established the Oxford-Berlin Research Partnership, which includes an “Oxford in Berlin” centre for Oxford University in Berlin. “We are starting to learn how to work on brain failure, which results in dementia.” “Light is really toxic to the brain at night, and you do not want to be looking at a computer screen late at night.” “I would put the Universities in charge of health care.”