Claim OwnershipAlain Elkann Interviews
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Alain Elkann Interviews podcasts are an unprecedented window into the minds of some of the most well-known and -respected figures of the last twenty-five years. Alain Elkann has mastered the art of the interview, approaching the task as somewhere between snapping a photograph and writing a short story. With a background in novels and journalism, and having published over twenty books translated across ten languages, Alain infuses his interviews with innovation, allowing them to flow freely and organically. A small selection, to which we will gradually add, are presented here as podcasts for the first time.
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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 “It’s baffling that African governments continue to follow outdated conservation models imposed when national parks were first established.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 arabica being the higher quality. • The coffee industry has seen a cultural revival in recent decades, with the rise of coffee shop chains like Starbucks making coffee a more sophisticated and social drink. • Tea has a much longer history, with origins in China thousands of years ago. It is deeply ingrained in the cultures of countries like China, India, and the UK, where it is a popular daily beverage. • The tea industry faces challenges similar to coffee, with a divide between mass-market, low-quality tea and the speciality, high-quality tea market. Factors like climate change and an ageing workforce are also impacting tea production. • Proper brewing methods, water quality, and education about the nuances of different teas and coffees are important for consumers to appreciate the full flavour profiles of these beverages. • Overall, both the coffee and tea industries are evolving, with the speciality and premium segments offering opportunities for growth and appreciation of these complex and culturally significant commodities.
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.”
CHANGING TASTE AND VALUE. Jussi Pylkkänen is now an independent art advisor. After 38 years of service, his career at Christies culminated in the global presidency of the auction house. Among his many outstanding achievements, in 2017 he was the auctioneer at the sale of the world’s most expensive painting, Leonardo da Vinci’s Salvator Mundi, sold at auction at in New York for $450,312,500, a new record price for any artwork which is likely to stand for many decades. “Art is the esssence of humanity.” “As I brought the hammer down on Salvator Mundi I was conscious that that one last bid, at an extra $30 million, was the equivalent of the total price of the Van Gogh Sunflowers, the painting and price that had transformed the art market forever in 1987.” “I will be back auctioneering alongside my art advisory. The two will go hand in hand.”
PASSIONATE ABOUT HOW PEOPLE RELAX. Andrea Wong has vast experience in the leisure and entertainment industry on both sides of the Atlantic. Wong was President, International Production for Sony Pictures Television and President, International for Sony Pictures Entertainment based in London. Prior to that, she served as President and CEO of Lifetime Cable Networks. She now serves on the boards of Liberty Media Corporation, Roblox, QVC Group, and Hudson Pacific Properties. “Everyone knows what it feels like to fall in love, to date, to be dumped.” “Dancing With the Stars was the most visually arresting show I’d ever seen.” “You have to do what you love. You have to do what makes you want to get up in the morning.”
BETWEEN WORLDS. Priscilla Rattazzi was born in Rome in 1956, attended Atlantic College in Wales, UK, and moved to the United States in the 1970s where she studied photography at Sarah Lawrence College in New York. The themes of her recent London solo exhibition, titled Between Worlds and at Robilant+Voena, offer a reflection of the photographer’s life, with an interlinking chronology, examining human relationships, and relationships between people and their dogs, while suggesting the increasingly profound reassurance of nature as an eternal point of reference, especially in uncertain times. “I have gone back and forth between worlds, not knowing who I am…” “I only tend to photograph things I love now, and I do my best work when I get upset.” “I’m deeply focussed on making sure that I’m a respected artist 20 years from now.”
CREATING A CULTURAL HUB. Nancy Olnick and Giorgio Spanu are the co-founders of Magazzino Italian Art, a museum and research center dedicated to postwar and contemporary Italian art that is located in Cold Spring, New York. Magazzino opened in 2017 at the former manufacturing site of Cyberchron rugged military computer systems. The name Magazzino translates as "warehouse". “Magazzino made the step that has made Arte Povera better known today.” “Magazzino will never stop displaying the 13 heroes that we have in the group of Arte Povera, so the original ‘main building’ will always remain a museum dedicated to Arte Povera.” “The donkeys in Sardinia were on the verge of extinction and were under very strict protection with laws that would not allow their export outside Sardinia.”
BELIEVING IN HOPE WITHOUT COMPROMISE. Dr Virgilio Sacchini is dedicated to caring for people with breast cancer at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York. He originally trained at Universita degli Studi di Milano (UNIMI, Milan, Italy) where he is Professor of Surgery, and cooperates with the European Institute of Oncology in Milan (IEO, Milan, Italy). Dr Sacchini is a 2023 and 2024 Castle Connolly America’s Top Doctor, the peer nominated group of the top 7% of all US practicing physicians. His goal is to achieve the best possible cancer outcomes and cosmetic results for his patients. “The new concept is to target only cancer cells.” “To cure someone and give him or her a miserable life is terrible, so the target in this moment is both better survival and better quality of life, less side effects.” “Once we prove that the combination of the medication with the Avacta technique works, of course it is approved and you can be cured everywhere in the world.”
BREAKING THE MIRROR. Michelangelo Pistoletto is one of the most celebrated artists in Europe. Born in Biella, Italy, in 1933 and a leading figure of the radical Italian Arte Povera movement, Pistoletto created his first Mirror Paintings in 1961–62. These influential works earned him international acclaim and have become a hallmark of his oeuvre. Robilant+Voena’s recent exhibition in Dover Street, London, presented works by Pistoletto divided across two rooms: the first room showcasing black and white mirror pieces, and the second offering mirror works in bold colours. "I do not call it black and white because the mirror doesn't have the colour white. I call it light: light mirror." "You are already in the painting." "We have to decide if we want peace or war."
James Snyder was Deputy Director of MoMA from 1986 to 1996. He then led the Israel Museum in Jerusalem through 22 years of dramatic growth, securing its stature as one of the world's foremost museums. In 2023 Snyder became Helen Goldsmith Menschel Director of the Jewish Museum in New York, which has been located in the former Warburg Mansion at 1109 5th Ave at 92nd Street since 1947. The Jewish Museum maintains a unique collection of nearly 30,000 works of art and archeology, ceremonial objects, and media reflecting the global Jewish experience over more than 3,500 years...... "We are all foreigners, wherever we are. Even at home, we are foreigners." "....an important point about the history of the region is to understand how, during the Ottoman Empire, there were not countries but rather cultures...." "...there does not have to be a disconnect between your core identity and your cultural identity."
COMPLETELY FRESH. Ai Weiwei is a contemporary artist, writer and humanitarian activist. Born in China in 1957, from 1981 to 1993 he lived in the United States. He currently has three exhibitions in New York: Child’s Play is at the Vito Schnabel Gallery at both 455 W 19th Street and 360 W 11th Street, and What You See is What You See is at Faurschou New York, 148 Green Street, Brooklyn. Ai Weiwei’s exhibitions run to late February 2025. “I don’t belong to anywhere at all or to any group, and I’m still trying to find out what is left, as a human and as an individual.” “Prison is one kind of human condition.” “You have to act out what you believe and make some actions, not just to change the world, but it’s really self-teaching to change yourself. I change daily.”
STILL PUSHING THE BOUNDARIES. Sir Norman Rosenthal celebrated his 80th birthday on November 8th 2024. A curator and art historian, he was Exhibitions Officer at Brighton Museum and Art Gallery, a curator at the Institute of Contemporary Arts and for many years Exhibitions Secretary at the Royal Academy in London. Recently he curated Georg Baselitz: The Last Decade at the Sabancı Museum in Istanbul. His Roberto Matta 1911-2002 opened at Ca’ Pesaro, Venice on October 25th 2024, and he is curating David Hockney’s April 2025 exhibition at Fondation Louis Vuitton, Paris. "Art is a complex story, and one has to pick out the great artists who have their own vision of the world." "I always liked to do things with other people." "I'm very proud to be having a dialogue with David Hockney"
IN MEMORIAM. Joseph Rykwert CBE died on October 18th 2024 at the age of 98. One of the foremost architectural historians and critics of his generation, Rykwert spent most of his working life in the UK and the USA. He was the Paul Philippe Cret Professor Emeritus of Architecture at the University of Pennsylvania and taught the history and theory of architecture at several institutions in Europe and North America. His many influential works on architecture include The Idea of a Town (1963), On Adam’s House in Paradise (1972), The Orders of Architecture (1982), The Dancing Column (1996), and The Seduction of Place (2000). All of his books have been translated into several languages. I visited Joseph often at his house in London’s Hampstead, and on 9th July 2021 he generously agreed for our conversation to be recorded and to take part in what would become this final interview. We publish it here for the first time because it was made to be able to remember and celebrate Joseph’s ‘gloriously erudite’, light-hearted voice at the time of his passing. Sadly, even if he lived to a considerable age, that time is now upon us. "I don't think there's one outstanding figure in my generation, there are a lot of second rank figures but there was not one figure of the stature of Corbusier." "Frank Lloyd Wright was a genius. Some of Wright’s buildings are impressive. I met him once, but not as a pupil. He was very antipatico, very exploitative of all the people who came to learn from him." "I think of myself as superficial and ignorant, because I just haven't read enough."
CONTINUING THE RENAISSANCE. Lorenzo Fiaschi is one of the three friends who founded the very prestigious Galleria Continua art gallery in San Gimignano, the town with a fantastic and famous skyline of medieval towers in Tuscany, Italy. "We aimed to be in the moment, to continue from the past, and to move toward the future. That's why the name: Galleria Continua." "My idea was to build bridges to help Cuba — cultural bridges between Cuba and the rest of the world." "It's about seeing people happy and enjoying the projects we are doing when they say, 'Wow!' — creating emotions."
INDEXING ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE. Alexandra Mousavizadeh is a Danish economist and CEO of Evident, an intelligence platform that benchmarks and tracks Artificial Intelligence (AI) adoption across the financial services sector. Prior to June 2022 Alexandra was a partner at Tortoise Media in London and creator of The Responsibility 100 Index and The Global AI Index. Alexandra specialises in index creation, using data to build benchmarks that rank nations and companies on key social and technological issues. “We have never seen technology change this quickly.” “Implementing AI in a business is a difficult task and requires a compete re-think of how the business is organised.” “The race has never been this intense before.”
AN HOMAGE TO FRIENDSHIP. Thomas Persson is a creative director, editor and brand consultant. His understanding of fashion, culture and corporate identity is a resource for global fashion and beauty companies in their visual communication and brand building projects. He created “Acne Paper” an acclaimed magazine published by Acne Studios. He art directed global advertising campaigns for leading fashion brands including Armani and he made two books on the legendary photographer Snowdon. Today he is once again at the editorial helm of a reborn “Acne Paper”. “A magazine is a beautiful way to connect with the world.” “There is something about the book and some magazines that, when they are well done, the Internet and social media can’t really compete with it, because it’s an object.” “There’s always one favourite image that sings to me, so it’s not a difficult choice, it stands out.”
CELEBRATING INDIVIDUAL SELF-EXPRESSION. Erdem Moralıoglu is a British fashion designer and the eponymous founder of London-based fashion label Erdem, which he established in 2005. His Spring Summer 2025 collection was shown at the British Museum’s South Entrance amidst its 45 feet high columns. The show was based on The Well of Loneliness by Radclyffe Hall, published in 1928 and banned in the same year. The book gives voice and form to the love of two women at a time when the idea of gay love between two women was not even illegal, its very existence was denied as impossible. For Spring Summer 2025 Erdem pays homage to this story of the love of Stephen Gordon, a woman living as a man, and her relationship with Mary Llewellyn. "I wonder if Radclyffe today would be considered non-binary or trans." "When you see someone wearing something that you've designed that might be almost 20 years old, but it's absorbed into their life and they wear it in their own way, I find that really wonderful!" "You can't help but look backwards when you're about to turn 20, but it also feels like the beginning."
EXPLORING HYBRIDITY. Dr Amin Jaffer is Director of The Al Thani Collection. He is responsible for working with the Centre des Monuments Nationaux and a global team in the creation of a museum space for The Al Thani Collection at the Hôtel de la Marine, Paris. He is also Artistic Director of the 2025 edition of the Islamic Arts Biennale in Jeddah. For 10 years he was International Director of Asian Art at Christie’s. At London’s Victoria and Albert Museum he was External Exhibition Curator responsible for the exhibition Maharaja: The Splendour of India’s Royal Courts. "When I went to meet the maharajas I was fascinated by their hybrid existence." "When we do an exhibition at The Al Thani Collection we don't just show beautiful things. There has always to be a very strong premise behind it and a real purpose." "When the French public came to see the Renaissance show, their response was that they had no idea The Al Thani Collection is so rich in the Renaissance."
A MISSION TO MAKE PEOPLE LAUGH. Gad Elmaleh is a stand-up comedian. Born in Morocco, after attending French schools in Casablanca he went to Montreal for 4 years. He was a political science student for a year, worked on radio, wrote humorous stories and played them in night clubs. In 1992 he took The Cours Florent theatre course in Paris. Through his one-man shows Décalages and La Vie Normale Gad was revealed as a humorist, and he is an actor who starred in various movies. Gad has two sons: Noé with actress Anne Brochet, and Raphael with Charlotte Casiraghi. "I love doing movies, but there is nothing I found in my life that can equal and get to the same level of intensity, excitement, adrenaline as the madness of the live performance." "We experienced such a peaceful relation and fraternity in Morocco with Jews and Muslims. This is quite unique in an Arab country." "Making people laugh is a great thing, but also is a therapy for a lot of people."
WRITING NEW CHAPTERS. Kamel Mennour is an Algerian-born French art dealer. In 1999 he founded Galerie Kamel Mennour in Paris. Today Mennour is a contemporary art gallery representing over forty artists with four exhibition locations in Paris. “I was part of the art scene which was offering a very stimulating position for Paris as a big place on the world map for art.” “The work has to have something very particular that I can become obsessed with.” “We are growing a trinity between the artist with his artworks, the gallery, and the collector.”
REINTERPRETING HERITAGE IN THE NEW WORLD. Leonardo Ferragamo, the fifth son of Salvatore and Wanda Ferragamo, is the Chairman of Salvatore Ferragamo S.p.A. since 2021. He studied economics at the University of Lausanne (UNIL), then at Columbia University. He started working for Ferragamo in menswear, and created Ferragamo Men Division. Today, he is also President of the Lungarno Collection of hotels in Florence, Rome and Milan, and CEO of Palazzo Feroni Finanziaria, one of the Ferragamo family’s two holding companies, which operates in real estate and other diversified businesses. Leonardo Ferragamo is also President of Sawa SRL, which has to do with his personal love of sailing boats and in particular the Nautor Swan yachts, to ensure whose future on August 1st 2024 he sold to Sanlorenzo, a worldwide leader in the production of made-to-measure yachts. “Heritage is one side of a river from which to build the bridge into the future.” “I want to make sure that the long-term future of a company and a brand like Swan, loved by so many people around the world, has a route over perennity, supported by a very credible group so as to launch it in the long-term future.” “You have to know what you’re going towards, what can happen to you, and you have to be aware of the unexpected things that can happen, and when they happen be prepared how to face them and not be scared because they are happening.”
A RESTAURATEUR ON THE FLOOR. Jeremy King is a well-known London restaurateur. He created some of London’s most iconic restaurants with his former business partner Chris Corbin, including The Ivy, Le Caprice and The Wolseley. In 2024 Jeremy King reincarnated Le Caprice as Arlington to great acclaim, and his latest venture is the all-day restaurant The Park. “I love clarity in a restaurant, which I feel with The Park that we have.” “I work on the basis that the food should never be deemed expensive.” “I realised it is impossible for me to see every customer when they come in, but I can see every member of staff every day, and they see every customer.”
AN ARCHITECTURE OF OPTIMISM. Amanda Levete CBE is a Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) Stirling Prize winning architect and founder and principal of AL_A, an international award-winning architecture studio in London. Since its formation in 2009, AL_A has refined an intuitive and strategic approach to design and urban thinking. “There’s only one thing in life that you cannot design, and that is heritage.” “We are using architecture to message the technological optimism of fusion.” “A historic context has this built-in resistance that forces you to think in a certain way.”
A FIGHTER FOR EGALITARIANISM AND JUSTICE. Judy Chicago is an artist, author, feminist, cultural historian, and educator who lives and works in New Mexico, USA. In 2018 she was named one of Time Magazine’s most influential people, and she has garnered an enduring stature. Born Judy Cohen in 1939, and known briefly after her first marriage as Judy Gerowitz, Chicago attended the Art Institute of Chicago and the University of California, Los Angeles. In 1970, she adopted the surname ‘Chicago’ and initiated the United States’ first Feminist Art Programme at California State University, Fresno. Chicago became particularly well known for her 1970s installation The Dinner Party. In 2024 her show Revelations is at London’s Serpentine and Herstory is at LUMA Arles. “Feminist art promotes diversity. I believe that every voice counts.” “I look at the history of art as the history of men’s art, and so feminist art opens the way for a history of women’s art.” “I don’t think people quite understand how much work it is for an artist to have three shows within one year.”
CLASSIC WITH A MODERN TWIST. Charles Zana is a highly sensitive architect who imagines each project through the lens of a French lifestyle. He is also a passionate collector like his father, and has done in-depth research on the great Italian design masters of the 20th century such as Ettore Sottsass and Carlo Scarpa. In 2019 Charles Zana was named Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres by David Caméo, director of the Musée des Arts Décoratifs. “I like to always start from a classic design, and then to treat it in a modern way.” “People don’t accept the simple beautiful project; they want to understand what is behind it.” “I became a good architect and then I became fashionable.”
THE ARTIST IS UTOPIC. Yinka Shonibare CBE RA is a celebrated British artist whose work explores cultural identity, colonialism and post-colonialism within the contemporary context of globalisation. His show Suspended States is at Serpentine from 12th April until September 1st 2024 and is his first London solo exhibition in over 20 years. “Artists are always utopian in their thinking, but then somehow we always fail this utopia, because it’s never actually realised.” “I was asking myself if can I make a work of art that’s really about nothing. Literally about wind.” “I don’t want to make literal abstractions, but I can get to the sublime through reality.”
THE PROMISED PARTY. Jennifer Clement is the President Emerita of PEN International and the author of multiple books, including Widow Basquiat and Gun Love. The recipient of many awards, her books have twice been a New York Times Editor’s Choice. Under her leadership at PEN International, and being the only woman elected since the organization was founded in 1921, the groundbreaking PEN International Women’s Manifesto and The Democracy of the Imagination Manifesto were created. As President of PEN Mexico (2009-2012), Clement was instrumental in changing the law to make killing a journalist a federal crime. “The book is fragmentary in the sense that it is written in very short chapters. It is also the story of how I became a writer and a tale of two cities.“ “I felt it was very important that PEN International, the largest and oldest writers’ organisation, defend the right for writers to use their imaginations and be who you are not.“ “The gun shot low.”
ENJOYING A NEW CHALLENGE. Minsuk Cho is the South Korean architect who has envisioned the Serpentine Pavilion 2024, the 23rd pavilion in the series, in London’s Kensington Gardens. It is titled Archipelagic Void as a unique void surrounded by a constellation of smaller adaptable structures, each of which has a specific purpose: the Gallery, the Auditorium, the Library, the Play Tower and the Tea House. Minsuk Cho trained in Seoul and New York, and worked in America and the Netherlands before returning to Korea to open his own practice, which he calls Mass Studies. “Architecture’s unique language allows people to interact, engage and understand in a very positive way.“ “This Serpentine project is exciting because the whole thing only takes six months from conception to completion.“ “The world is changing, and I don’t want to become a jaded professional. I take everything as a new challenge.“
WRITERS ARE UNBALANCED PEOPLE. Paul Theroux is an American novelist and travel writer known for his highly personal award-winning observations on many locales. Over 50 works of fiction and travel writing include modern classics The Great Railway Bazaar, The Old Patagonian Express, My Secret History and The Mosquito Coast. Theroux’s recent book, Burma Sahib, explores Eric Blair’s years as a British Raj police officer in colonial Burma that transformed him into the anticolonial writer, George Orwell. "A novelist speculates, and that's my role in life: to invent, to imagine, and to create the person" "The writer is defining himself or herself with each book" "Most of my books are about a person, usually a man somewhat like myself, that needs to solve a problem"
AGENT JOSEPHINE: A BETRAYAL TOO FAR. Robert Verkaik is a British author and award-winning journalist. He was the Home Affairs Editor of the Independent and the Security Editor of the Mail on Sunday. He is the author of Defiant: The Untold Story of the Battle of Britain, Posh Boys and Jihadi John: Making of a Terrorist, as well as the Sunday Times bestseller The Traitor of Colditz. He is a non-practising barrister and lives in Surrey. His most recent book is The Traitor of Arnhem: WWII’s Greatest Betrayal and the Moment That Changed History Forever. "Blunt himself was responsible for editing the MI5 monthly briefings which were handed to Churchill, so was in a very good position to bury everything that Churchill may or may not have wanted to know about Agent Josephine and Arnhem." "The arguments that Blunt was making about his own treachery are the same ones that some of the British jihadis were using to justify their own actions." "Things haven't changed as far as the Russian leaders view the world."
FOR THE SAKE OF THE WRITTEN WORD. Vera Michalski-Hoffmann spent her childhood in the Camargue, France, then studied at the Graduate Institute in Geneva, Switzerland. Together with her husband Jan Michalski, a Polish native, she founded the publishing company Éditions Noir sur Blanc. Together they developed the Libella group, which now comprises a dozen publishing houses in Switzerland, France and Poland. Jan passed away in 2002, and Vera created the Jan Michalski Foundation for Writing and Literature to perpetuate their shared commitment to the written word, to support literary creation and encourage reading. Vera Michalski-Hoffmann has received Polish and French prizes and distinctions, an honorary doctorate from the University of Lausanne, and is a UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador. “We try to host as many events as possible that bring people back to the written word.” “Unless properly controlled, the use of AI in the creative process could mean a great impoverishment of the world.” “For the Gulag evening most of the people in attendance were older, and I would bet that more than half of young people simply don’t know what Gulag is.”
SCULPTING WITH FABRIC. Sergio Roger graduated from Berlin’s Art Academy (UdK) where he studied Sculpture and New Media Art. He has received several important awards and his work has been exhibited in international galleries such as Galleria Rossana Orlandi and Robilant + Voena in New York. Sergio’s work is rooted in his life-long fascination with visual representations of beauty in ancient civilizations, especially the Graeco-Roman era and its modern counterparts. “I’m passionate and obsessed with these kinds of fabrics” “Art is the laboratory where things are taken out of the world and seen and put under the light” “In my daily life, I don’t want distraction.”
EDUCATING THE IMMUNE RESPONSE. Andrea Califano is President of the Chan Zuckerberg Biohub New York. He is the Clyde and Helen Wu Professor of Chemical and Systems Biology at Columbia University Irving Medical Center, and also holds appointments in the Departments of Biochemistry & Molecular Biophysics, Biomedical Informatics, and Medicine. The Chan Zuckerberg Biohub Network of scientific institutes is supported by and partners with the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative to help researchers cure, prevent, or manage all diseases by the end of the century. “We are trying to take over where natural evolution has stopped.” “We need to learn more about mechanisms that we can harness to generate universal therapies.” “For Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s, we are certainly hoping to accomplish being able to detect them at a stage where they are still treatable.”
ART, 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.”
BUILDING A GLOBAL NARRATIVE. Gilles Kepel is a university professor, political scientist and Arabist. His books include Terror in France: The Rise of Jihad in the West, Away from Chaos: The Middle East and the challenge to the West, and lately Prophète en son pays (Editions de l’Observatoire: 2023) and Holocaustes (Plon: 2024). He has published 25 books, which have been translated into some 20 languages. “The Global South is a construct. I believe it won’t stand together.” “The very notion of Holocaust as meaning the Jewish Holocaust by the Nazis is being put into question by those new leaders of the Global South.” “I believe that academic knowledge has a global outreach and people are not prisoners of opinion leaders.”
GOING THROUGH STAGES. Graham Steele is a private art dealer, adviser and collector who lives between Los Angeles and Brazil with his husband, Ulysses de Santi, and their young daughter, Asher. Born in rural Vermont, Steele attended Georgetown University, Washington D.C., followed by UCL in London, from which he graduated with his MA in 2004. He started his career at Sotheby’s, joined White Cube in 2006, and is a former partner at the eminent contemporary and modern art gallery Hauser & Wirth, a role which he left in 2020 to start his own business. “Everything starts with education” “Collecting is incredibly personality driven” “I am in the business of helping people find things that are relevant to their lives“
HERE TO SERVE. Joel Mesler is an artist whose career in the art world started as an art dealer and gallerist. A Master of Fine Arts graduate of the San Francisco Art Institute, Mesler worked for almost two decades as an art dealer in Los Angeles and New York City, painting on and off while promoting artists Henry Taylor and Rashid Johnson early in their careers. In 2017, Mesler moved to Sag Harbor, where he owns Rental Gallery. He continues to paint, influenced by pop culture and nature as well as his own history of addiction and his Jewish heritage. "Survival is our badge of honour" "I'll never stop painting rabbis" "There's nothing to hide"
WHO WE ARE AND WHERE WE ARE. Sir Steve McQueen CBE is a British film director, film producer, screenwriter, and video artist. Over the last 30 years he has created some of the most innovative works of moving image designed for gallery spaces. He has also directed critically acclaimed feature films, including the Academy Award-winning “12 Years a Slave”, as well as “Hunger”, “Shame”, “Widows”, “Blitz”, and “Occupied City”. “It’s always good to have some kind of understanding of where you are now and why you’re here now.” “I’m not a slave to the medium.” “The only reason I do what I do is because I can somehow reflect on who we are or who we want to be.”
THE DIFFICULT HAPPINESS OF BEING JEWISH. Pauline Bebe is the rabbi of Communauté Juive Libérale (CJL), a Progressive Jewish congregation in Paris, where she was the first female rabbi to lead a synagogue. “The philosophy of Judaism is to maintain hope in times of difficulties, and we have to fight for our ideals of democracy, of humanity, of respect for every living person.” “A lot of Jews feel that they are not understood; that whatever they say or do will not be understood, but they also think that more than ever they have to reclaim their Judaism.” “I hope for peace. I hope for dialogue with everyone.”
POWER IS NOTHING WITHOUT CONTROL. Ambrogio Beccaria was born in Milan in 1991 and gained a degree in nautical engineering. In 2019 he became the first Italian in the history of sailing to win the Mini-Transat – the historic solo competition that crosses the Atlantic Ocean on board 6.5 metre boats. Since 2022 Beccaria has been reaching important goals on his boat “Alla Grande – Pirelli” and in 2023 won the Transat Jacques Vabre, the most important race of the year. “I love everything about sailing.” “You need to be a sailor. You need to understand your boat, to feel what is going on, to be connected with the sea.” “Once you won one race then you have to win the next.”
I WANT TO CREATE JUNCTIONS. Hans Ulrich Obrist is a Swiss art curator, critic, and art historian who lives and works in London where he is Artistic Director at Serpentine. Obrist is the author of The Interview Project, an extensive ongoing project of interviews, and is also co-editor of the Cahiers d'Art review.
TRADITION AND INNOVATION. Inigo Lambertini was appointed Ambassador of Italy to the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland by the Italian Government in February 2022 and arrived in London in October, a few weeks after the death of Queen Elizabeth. Neapolitan by birth, he entered the Italian diplomatic service in 1987, and his career includes recent duties as Chief of Diplomatic Protocol in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Rome, after New York.
DESIGN OF THE PRESENT INTO THE FUTURE. Tim Marlow OBE is the Chief Executive and Director of The Design Museum which since 2016 is housed in the former premises of the Commonwealth Institute in Kensington, London. Marlow is a curator, writer and broadcaster who has worked with some of the most influential contemporary artists to deliver wide-ranging and popular programmes. He sits on the Board of Trustees for the Imperial War Museum, Sadler’s Wells, Art on the Underground Advisory Board and Cultureshock Media.
TASTEMAKER AND HOTELIER. Jasper Conran is a British designer who studied at Parsons School of Art and Design in New York. He has worked on collections of womenswear and for the home, as well as productions for the stage in ballet, opera and theatre. He opened his first hotel in Morocco, L'Hôtel Marrakech, recently followed by Villa Mabrouka in Tangier. "I have a store of ideas in my head, and this ability to switch from one thing to another." "Theatre and ballet let me go crazy." "I went to see the Saint Laurent house and bought it immediately. I could see what it could be as a hotel."
A MISSION TO STOP EXTINCTION. Fanny Minesi is General Director of Friends of Bonobos - Les Amis des Bonobos du Congo (ABC). Her organisation operates the world’s only sanctuary – Lola ya Bonobo - and only rewilding site for bonobos – Ekolo ya Bonobo. Raised in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), she has been immersed in wildlife conservation since childhood. In November 2023 she was presented with the Tusk Award for Conservation in Africa by William, Prince of Wales. Fanny Minesi works to secure the future of endangered bonobos through rescue and rehabilitation, rewilding, conservation law enforcement, education, and economic development. "The only way to survive for bonobos is making a transfer of affection with someone or another bonobo. Love is really important for their survival." "What is different about our organisation is that when small bonobos arrive, we give them a surrogate mother who will give them love and affection." "If we want Congo to value the protection of its natural resources, we will have to show the country that choosing protection of forest and biodiversity leads to development for the people."
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