Alain Elkann Interviews - Intesa Sanpaolo On Air

David Dawson studied painting at the Chelsea School of Art and then at the Royal College of Art. Soon after completing his MA in 1991 he met Lucian Freud, becoming his studio assistant and friend for 20 years until Freud died in 2011. He was also the model for several paintings and documented the artist’s work in photographs. He is Director of the Lucian Freud Archive and until January 2023 the National Gallery in London is staging a landmark exhibition titled New Perspectives to mark the centenary of Lucian Freud’s birth in 1922.

Kerry Kennedy is President of Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights, founded in 1968 after the assassination of her father. She has devoted more than 40 years to the pursuit of equal justice, the promotion and protection of basic rights, and the preservation of the rule of law.

Harumi Klossowska de Rola is an artist and designer who creates powerful sculptural works and delicately crafted luxury jewellery inspired by the flora and fauna of the natural world. Her animals are totemic entities, capable of creating a bridge between nature and man, the visible and the invisible, the spirit and the earth. Harumi is the daughter of the painter Balthus and the Japanese artist Setsuko Klossowska de Rola.

Jhumpa Lahiri was born in London to Bengali parents. She grew up in the United States, taught at Princeton University, and currently teaches at Barnard College, Columbia University. She is the author, in English, of Interpreter of Maladies (winner of the Pulitzer Prize for fiction,) The Namesake, Unaccustomed Earth, and The Lowland, which was a finalist for the Man Booker prize and the National Book Award in fiction. Since 2015, Lahiri has been writing fiction, essays, and poetry in Italian: In Altre Parole (In Other Words), Il Vestito dei libri (The Clothing of Books), Dove mi trovo (self-translated as Whereabouts), Il quaderno di Nerina, and Racconti Romani. Lahiri received the National Humanities Medal from President Barack Obama in 2014, and in 2019, was named Commendatore of the Italian Republic by President Sergio Mattarella. Her most recent book in English is a collection of essays entitled Translating Myself and Others. She lives between Rome and New York.

Caroline Moorehead is a bestselling and prize-winner author, and the biographer of Bertrand Russell, Freya Stark, Iris Origo, Madame de la Tour du Pin and Martha Gellhorn. Her recent books – a quartet focused on resistance to dictatorship, particularly in Italy – were shortlisted for the Samuel Johnson Prize, the Orwell Prize and the Costa Biography Award. She lives in London.

Paola D’Agostino is Director of the Musei del Bargello, in Florence, Italy, a new museum group comprising the Museo Nazionale del Bargello, the Medici Chapel, the Church and Museum of Orsanmichele, Palazzo Davanzati and Casa Martelli. This five museum consortium was put together after the reform of Italian museums in 2014 by Dario Franceschini, the Italian Minister of Cultural Heritage.

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.

The London based photographer, filmmaker and author Mary McCartney’s photographs have been shown at leading international institutions and galleries. Mary’s editorial work has featured in GQ, Vogue, and the Sunday Times, and she has been a guest editor of National Geographic Magazine. Mary was selected to take the official photograph of her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II in 2015 when she became the longest-reigning British monarch in history.

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. Valensise was formerly head of the Special Secretariat of the Italian Minister for Cultural Heritage, Alberto Ronchey, and from 2012 to 2016 she was Director of the Italian Institute of Culture in Paris.

British menswear designer Kim Jones is a graduate of Central St Martins. He has worked with high profile fashion brands including Dunhill, Louis Vuitton, Mulberry, Alexander McQueen, Hugo Boss, Iceberg, Topman and Uniqlo. In 2018 he joined Dior Men as artistic director, and in 2020 was also named artistic director at Fendi, a position that was previously held by Karl Lagerfeld.