Alain Elkann Interviews

LEADING AN INTERNATIONAL UNIVERSITY. Francesco Billari is Professor of Demography at Bocconi University in Milan, Italy. He became Rector in November 2022 after having held the role of Dean of the Faculty. He has worked at the University of Oxford Department of Sociology, at Nuffield College, and at the Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research. His recent book Domani è Oggi offers a demographic lens to shed light on the potential futures shaped by today's choices.

"The important thing is that all young people should think that going to university is a wise and desirable idea.

"We want to change the world by research."

"We still have to learn how to deal with this diversity that comes with demographic change. It is completely new for humanity."

https://www.alainelkanninterviews.com/francesco-billari/

CHANGING THE QUALITY OF TRAUMA IN CHILDREN AND FAMILIES. David Trickey is a Consultant Clinical Psychologist who has specialised in working with traumatised children, young people, and their families since 2000. He is Co-Director of the UK Trauma Council, chartered by the British Psychological Society and registered with the Health and Care Professions Council. Across all of his roles, he draws heavily on the published research literature, to which he has made his own contribution.

"An important part of getting through traumatic events is being able to make sense of them, to think them through, and as social beings we will often do that with others."

"It can be incredibly powerful for people to hear an apology even decades later."

"As a therapist, my work is regaining enough trust for them to be able to share the details of what happened."

https://www.alainelkanninterviews.com/david-trickey/

PROMOTING ITALIAN CULTURE AND BRIDGING CULTURAL DIVIDES. Claudio Pagliara is a journalist who became the Director of the Italian Cultural Institute on Park Avenue in New York in September 2025, soon after he completed his term as head of the RAI Radiotelevisione italiana correspondence office in the United States. With enormous international experience that includes living in Jerusalem for almost 10 years, he was foreign desk chief at Tg2 — Italy's second state channel — for seven years. His recent book L'imperatore is a journey through America's transformation and the challenge it poses to the world. Pagliara holds a degree in linguistic philosophy from Rome's La Sapienza University.

"My first mission is to enlarge the love for Italian culture among Americans."

"We want to build a big family together with Italians and the American lovers of Italy."

"Maybe not everybody knows that Italy is the most important contributor to peacekeepers around the world."

https://www.alainelkanninterviews.com/claudio-pagliara

ANTHROPOLOGY REGENERATES CULTURE. Simone Verde is a museologist and art historian who was appointed Director of the Uffizi Galleries in Florence, Italy, in December 2023, replacing Eike Schmidt who moved to Capodimonte. From 2014 to 2016 Simone Verde was head of scientific research at the Louvre in Abu Dhabi, and from 2016 to 2023 he directed the Complesso Monumentale della Pilotta in Parma, Italy, whose total restoration and refurbishment he completed. Verde studied Theoretical Philosophy in Rome and Paris, has a doctorate in Anthropology of Cultural Heritage, and a degree in Museology and Art History at the École du Louvre.

"The strength of art, of heritage, is its capacity to regenerate itself through centuries and time and cultures."

"The icons of the museum are promoted by social media, and this is both an opportunity and a problem."

"We have to be a universal museum in terms of audiences. That makes the work we do much more complicated."

THE REGENERATION OF THE FRICK. Axel Rüger is a German art historian, curator and museum director. Director of the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam from 2006 to 2019, he previously worked as a curator of Dutch art at the National Gallery in London. He led the Royal Academy of Arts in London from 2019 through 2024, and in March 2025 assumed the directorship of The Frick Collection in New York City.

"You get a sense of how the Fricks lived at the time, even though we do not really talk much about their daily life."

"For the first time, the Frick now also has a café and a dedicated space for education activities."

"The library has always been a vital part of the museum."

https://www.alainelkanninterviews.com/axel-ruger/

REALISING WONDERFUL IDEAS. Colin Bailey is a British art historian and Director of the Morgan Library & Museum in New York City. He is a scholar of eighteenth and nineteenth century French art, with a specific interest in the artist Pierre-Auguste Renoir. For the first time ever in America, Caravaggio's Boy With A Basket Of Fruit is on show at The Morgan.

"Renoir Drawings is a survey of Renoir working on paper, drawings, pastels; and then how some of those drawings relate to paintings and even sculpture.

"We also are a teaching institution, so we want to put a light on Caravaggio in a slightly different way.

"My first job is just keep telling everyone how interesting and lively and rewarding The Morgan is and making sure that it is."

https://www.alainelkanninterviews.com/colin-bailey-2/

HISTORIAN OF THE ARABS. Professor Eugene Rogan is Director of the Middle East Centre at St Antony's College, University of Oxford. He has a B.A. in economics from Columbia, and an M.A. and PhD in Middle Eastern history from Harvard. Among many other titles, he is author of The Arabs: A History which has been translated into 18 languages and was named one of the best books of 2009 by The Economist, The Financial Times, and The Atlantic Monthly.

"The Arab peoples were never reconciled to being colonised by the British and French."

"The idea of united Arabs has been enormously appealing to Arab peoples right through the 20th century."

"Almost all the governments right through the Middle East are nation states governed by constitutions. The opposition is Islamist, but not the form of government."

VISIONARY IN DESIGN. Clémence and Didier Krzentowski founded Galerie kreo in 1999. Today Galerie kreo is located in a very beautiful building in 31 rue Dauphine in the centre of Saint-Germain-des-Prés. It is a gallery of 20th and 21st century design and they are preparing a very important exhibition that will take place at Christie's in Paris from January 14 to January 28, 2026, when they will present the masterpieces of their collection, 65 iconic pieces from the gallery.

"We call ourselves a research laboratory, because the idea is not to produce just another chair or table, but to give the designers a possibility to produce a complete collection and exhibition."

"That's what interests us most of all: not seeing the object first, but having designers share with us what they are thinking."

"We are lucky we're working with people who are so talented and who surprise us each time."

INTIMATE DIALOGUES WITH ANTONELLO DA MESSINA. Marco Delogu is an acclaimed Italian photographer, publisher, and cultural director whose work focuses on portraits of groups sharing common languages and experiences. He served a successful four year term as the Director of the Italian Cultural Institute in London from 2015 to 2019, noted for his innovative approach as the first photographer leading such an institute. Since 2022 Delogu is President of the Azienda Speciale Palaexpo, an instrumental body of the city of Rome that manages an integrated system of cultural spaces and events, capable of reaching a large and attentive audience.

"Antonello was in my mind, so I photographed four Antonello paintings, starting with L'Annunciata di Palermo."

"If you want to get into these two pictures, you have to enter and then to get away from these eyes."

"I want to finish my work with Antonello da Messina and then I just want to go on and be open."

MANIFESTATIONS OF THE VOYAGE. Simone Fattal is a Lebanese-American artist. Born in 1942 in Damascus, she was educated in Beirut and Paris, studying philosophy at the École des Lettres and the Sorbonne, as well as archaeology at the École du Louvre. Simone Fattal and Etel Adnan (1925–2021) were life partners for 49 years, artists who shared a profound creative, political, and personal connection. Their multidisciplinary work spans painting, sculpture, poetry, and publishing.

"We have to ask the women prisoners to write the poems. Which they did, and I transcribed them on the surfaces of the lava."

"My inspiration doesn't come from artists. When I'm working, poetic verses come to my mind."

"I'm not displaced, but a traveler."