Karim Bartoletti interviews Chiara Leonardi (Assistant Director and Project Development for Matteo Garrone - Archimede Srl) in this NABA Meets Alumni episode. As an alumna of the BA in Media Design and Multimedia Arts, Chiara has a great experience in the film industry. Her first short film, "Alice", was selected for the 31st Settimana Internazionale della Critica of the 73rd Venice International Film Festival. Over the years, she collaborated with Matteo Garrone and has contributed to outstanding films such as Dogman (2017) and Pinocchio (2019).

In this episode, Karim Bartoletti will interview Elena Beccaro, BA in Set Design alumna. During her professional experience, she designed the costumes of many shows. She collaborated with Festival Verdi in Parma, Teatro Sociale di Como, Théàtre des Champs-elysées, Theater Orchester of Biel Solothurn, Teatro Regio di Parma, Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, and Oper Frankfurt. In addition, she works on the occasion of fashion shows, events, music videos and performances.

In this episode, Karim Bartoletti (NABA visiting professor) interviews Chiara Lupi – curator and editor, MA in Visual Arts and Curatorial Studies alumna. Chiara is assistant curator at Castello di Rivoli Museo d'Arte Contemporanea, Rivoli-Turin, from 2019. Here, she had the chance to work on exhibitions and art catalogues. She is editor and project editor for the publishing house Lenz, and exhibition curator of the NABA-sponsored project “Bacteriart. From Invisible to Visible” from 2020.

Karim Bartoletti interviews Cem Yilmaz (Industrial Designer - Whirlpool). Cem completed the MA in Product and Service Design in 2016. Now he collaborates with leading companies in the design and engineering field. 

Our guests tell us about their educational and professional career. They started from the BA in Fashion Design and a BA in Graphic Design and Art Direction, respectively. Today, they both work in the communication field and collaborate with Warner Bros. Discovery.

Our guest tells more about his educational and professional experience, from the showcase at AFWM (Afro Fashion Week Milan) to the birth of his own brand PHAN DANG HOANG.

In 2012, Martina Pappagallo wins a scholarship for NABA and moves to Milan. She graduates in 2015 and she has to decide how to present herself to the labour market; she is multifaceted, she is multitasking, and she hates to label herself. She introduces herself as a graphic, photographer, and illustrator, and over the years she shifts to animation. She works together with a number of professionals of the industry, in agencies, TV shows, and production companies, such as Xfactor and La Repubblica delle Donne. She is fond of research, pirate books, podcasts on Greek and Roman mythology.

Born in Russia in 1991 and holding her first degree in Economics, Ksenia’s interest in architecture and design brought her to Interior design Master course at NABA. During her studies, she started her practical design journey as exhibition designer with Triumph Gallery in Moscow. In just 3 years she realized more than 20 projects at state museums and cultural institutions such as the Tretyakov Gallery, the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts, the Multimedia Art Museum, the Manege Central Exhibition Hall in St. Petersburg and many others. One of her recent projects ‘Future Lab: Kinetic Art in Russia’ received the national art award ‘Innovation’ as ‘Project of the Year-2020’. Being a multidisciplinary designer, Ksenia works to achieve the synergy of architecture, spatial design, artistic & curatorial vision in her every project. She covers the full circle of production from concept design to implementation of exhibition projects at any level of complexity.

Simone Bozzelli was born in the province of Teramo. He moved to Milan and graduated at NABA in Media Design & Multimedia Art. He wrote and directed the short films Mio Fratello (2015) and Loris sta bene (2017). Since 2018, he has been studying direction at the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia in Rome, where he directed Amateur (2019) and J'ador (2020), in competition at the 34th and 35th Venice International Film Critics Week, with J'ador awarded as best short film. In 2021, he directed the video clip I wanna be your slave by Maneskin. His latest short film Giochi is in competition at the 74th Locarno Film festival. He worked on "Latin America", the latest moovie by the Innocenzo brothers. He is currently working on his first feature film.

Graduated from the MA program Visual Arts and Curatorial Studies at NABA in 2016, he studied between Istanbul and Milan today Sarp Özer is a curator, writer, and producer. Özer lives in Turkey and works as Curator at AVTO, a cultural organization located in Istanbul. He is a contributor of publications by L’Internazionale, SALT, So-far, Arter, and Institute of Network Cultures. He also co-produces the Ahali Conversations, a podcast series inquiring on the future of cultural production hosted by artist Can Altay.

Guillermo Zambrano, born in Brasil, graduate in Product design, Class of 2015. He carried out his studies between Bogotà and Milan. Guilermo has more 11 years of international experience in Retail Architecture and project management for branch such as Reebok, Adidas, Cartier, Piaget, Jimmy Choo as well large scale projects such as New Doha int. Airport and Spanish Pavillon for Expo Shanghai 2020. Since 2019, Guillermo is Architect Store Development manager for Adidas in Dubai.

Charlie Moon is a director, influencer, and writer. In 2020, she graduated in Media Design & Multimedia Arts at NABA. Today, she has 350,000 followers on YouTube, 178,000 followers on Instagram, and over 390,000 followers on TikTok. In 2018, together with some NABA classmates, she founded the communication agency Colibri12. In 2019, she published her first novel, Dicono di Noi (About Us), the result of a long and difficult journey that led to self-discovery and to the courage of self-acceptance. In the same year, she published the short film based on her novel on YouTube, which has obtained almost 900,000 hits so far.

The young Italian artist studied scenography and stage design at NABA in Milan. During his studies, he increasingly found himself drawn to world of opera and theatre. He collaborated with stage designer Margherita Palli on the design for the “W – Women in Italian Design” exhibition, which was shown at the Triennale 2016 in Milan, and on the exhibition “Maria Callas in scena”, which showed some of the diva’s costumes, at the Milan Scala in 2017. Davide Boni has worked as a costume designer at the Milan Teatro dell’Arte, and at the Teatro Maggiore in Verbania. Since 2016 he has collaborated with Jacques Reynaud on the costumes for productions by Robert Wilson, including “EDDA” at the Det Norske Teatret in Oslo, “Turandot” at the Teatro Real in Madrid and “Otello” at the Festspielhaus in Baden-Baden.

Born and raised in Indonesia, she decided to challenge herself with a new experience and decided to study at NABA. Before graduating from the Master of Creative Advertising program, she already started working in the creative industry in Milan. Then she joined in one of the biggest global smartphone brands, OPPO, at their Italian branch as a designer specializing in ATL advertising.

Lorenzo Seghezzi is a young Milanese designer. In 2019, he graduates from the Nuova Accademia di Belle Arti in Milan and in 2020, he is already present at Alta Roma. He creates tailor-made garments that are the result of continuous research focused on the body, on gender identity and on a fluid and free expression of oneself. His passion for fashion starts when he is a boy, after the need to create clothes that could act as an armour, as a shield against bullying and homophobia. He draws inspiration from the world, from the narratives and aesthetics of the LGBTQ+ and queer communities of which he is a member and activist. Through his works, Lorenzo Seghezzi tries to denounce the concepts of homophobia and machismo by tracing a new typology of vulnerable and at the same time incisive masculinity, which sources from the most diverse visual universes. In fact, in his collections, corsets, sartorial dresses and Victorian tailoring techniques emerge, as well as punk and drag influences.

After graduating in Architecture and Furniture at the State Institute of Art in Potenza, Salvatore Vignola decides to study Fashion Design at NABA in Milan, where he graduated in 2014. Salvatore Vignola, promising stylist in the Milanese area, but also on the international scene, has shown a strong passion for the world of fashion since he was a little child. For this reason, he leaves Basilicata to move to Milan and bring his way of conceiving fashion to life; his fashion mirrors his passion for his land of origin and the theatrical aspect of life, typical of southern Italy.
The talk with Salvatore Vignola is the story of a professional journey that began in Basilicata when, at the age of 6, he felt the strong desire to work in the world of fashion; we will retrace his training path through anecdotes and memories.

Passionate about Japanese Pop culture, he studies graphics and communication already in high school where he knows the basics of the main software and where he begins to train his eye on art direction. In the same period he took up a commitment as an assistant in a small agency in the prov of Bergamo, mainly dealing with BTL communication for the Ceccarelli Group, Coca-Cola and Focus magazine. His curiosity towards the world of design grew, so after graduating he enrolled at the New Academy of Fine Arts in Milan (NABA) and graduated after three years in Graphic Design & Art Direction, specializing in Brand Design & New Media. After completing his studies, he worked for a short period as a communication consultant in the fashion sector and then joined We Are Social Italia, where he has been working as an Art Director for three years. This is much more are the story of Alessandro Lazzaro.

Immediately after his graduation from the Master in Visual Arts and Curatorial Studies at NABA, he joined the Benetton family’s cultural panorama, serving first as curator at Fabrica (Editorial and Photography Collection) and then as senior curator at Gallerie delle Prigioni (Benetton Foundation and Collection). In this context, his projects have included the work of established artists such as Nick Cave, Barkley L. Hendricks, Joseph Kosuth, Helmut Lang, Hélio Oiticica, Lynette Yiadom-Boakye, and Susan Hiller, while in 2019 he co-curated the 30th International Carlo Scarpa Prize for Gardens.
He’s actually a contemporary art curator who has developed exhibitions, performance programs, educational projects, and art publications across many countries in Europe.

Thanks to work experience at the Teatro alla Scala, he had the opportunity to work with directors such as Mario Martone, Grisha Asagaroff, Nikolaus Lehnhoff, Kasper Holten, Jürgen Flimm and follow productions such as Turandot, Cavalleria / Pagliacci, Il barbiere di Siviglia, L'elisir of love, The turn of the screw and I see you, I feel you, I lose myself.
She has worked alongside directors such as Serena Sinigaglia, Gioele Dix, Renato Bonajuto and as stage director for the Donizetti Festival in Bergamo and The New Generation Festival.
In the field of Performing Arts, he specializes in the design of site-specific performances in which the viewer has a participatory role. Among the most important collaborations we remember the one with CROSS Project - LIS LAB Performing Arts and with the Carte Blanche company in Denmark.
Since 2014 he has been part of the Kokoschka Revival artistic collective, of which he is also a member of the board, with which he experiments with interactive formats between art and technology. "

Young Italian director, born and raised near Verona. While still a student, he was noticed by Indiana Production, with whom he began to collaborate as a production assistant on Gabriele Salvatores' film, Italy In A Day (Italian follow-up of Ridley Scott's Life In A Day). After graduation, he continued to work exclusively for Indiana Production, and in 2018 he moved into directing making several audiovisual products, commercials and branded content, all characterized by a sincere style and a realistic approach to storytelling. He has signed documentaries, short films, web series and full-length films.

Sara Ricciardi graduate in Product Design, class of 2015. She carried out her studies between Milan, Istanbul and New Work. Afterwards, she opened her studio where she designs products for companies, unique pieces for galleries, along with performances and art & interior installations. Sara was selected among the 2018 finalists of 'Next Designer Generation' by Wallpaper and Officine Panerai. She has collaborated with Visionnaire, Houtique, Coin casa, Culti and Giorgetti.  In 2019 The Triennale di Design paid tribute to Sara by including her among the Women of Italian contemporary design within the 'Women in Design' exhibition.

NABA is glad to announce the launch of NABA MEETS alumni, a series of digital dialogues, aimed at showcasing the Academy’s talented Alumni and their professional journeys to the public.