Bill Ballantine (illustrator)Bill Ballantine (1910–1999) was an American writer and illustrator of circus subjects, as well as a professional clown. A prolific writer, Ballantine contributed circus and travel essays to major magazines. His many stories of circus life appeared in Collier's, Holiday, Harper’s Bazaar, Saturday Evening Post, True, Saga, and Seventeen. Ballantine also authored ten books, including Wild Tigers and Tame Fleas, Horses and Their Bosses, and Clown Alley, which chronicles his years as dean of the Ringling Bros.
Achille Bonito OlivaAchille Bonito Oliva (born 1939) is an Italian art critic and historian of contemporary art. Since 1968 he has taught history of contemporary art at La Sapienza, the university of Rome. He has written extensively on contemporary art and contemporary artists; he originated the term Transavanguardia to describe the new direction taken in the late 1970s by artists such as Sandro Chia, Francesco Clemente, Enzo Cucchi, Nicola De Maria, and Mimmo Paladino.
Gianni AmbrosioGianni Ambrosio (born 23 December 1943 in Santhià) is the emeritus bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Piacenza-Bobbio. Born in Santhià on 23 December 1943, he studied theology in minor and major seminaries of Vercelli and on 7 July 1968 he was ordained priest. In 1970 he obtained a diploma in social sciences at the Institut Catholique in Paris and in 1972 he obtained the specialization-diploma in sociology at the École pratique des hautes études at the Sorbonne University.
Marco BelpolitiMarco Belpoliti (born 1954) is an Italian writer, essayist and critic, who contributes regularly to La Repubblica and L'Espresso, and is currently a professor at the University of Bergamo. He is the author of many books and edited the Einaudi edition of the complete works of Primo Levi. Marco Belpoliti was born in Reggio Emilia in 1954 and graduated from the University of Bologna in 1978 having completed a thesis on Semiotics supervised by Umberto Eco. His first published work was his novel Confine: vite immaginarie del clown in 1986.
Università Iuav di VeneziaIuav University of Venice (Università Iuav di Venezia) is a university in Venice, Italy. It was founded in 1926 as the Istituto Universitario di Architettura di Venezia as one of the first Architecture schools in Italy. The university currently offers several undergraduate, graduate and higher education courses in Architecture, Urban Planning, Fashion, Arts, and Design. It is a design-themed university focusing on the teaching, research, and practice of the design of living spaces and environments (buildings, cities, landscapes and territory) and in the design of everyday use objects, of fashion and of graphics.
Abbas GharibAbbas Gharib, (born 16 June 1942), is an Italian-based architect of Iranian origin. His approach to planning and design, which goes beyond the traditional modernism or contemporary format, has made him well-known as an influential figure in the research, practice, and teaching of post-contemporary art and architecture. Gharib was born in Tehran and raised in an Iranian lay family. The house where the family used to live was situated in the old center of the traditional part of Tehran.
Terra (blockchain)Terra is a blockchain protocol and payment platform used for algorithmic stablecoins. The project was created in 2018 by Terraform Labs, a startup co-founded by Do Kwon and Daniel Shin. It is most known for its Terra stablecoin and the associated Luna reserve asset cryptocurrency. In May 2022, the Terra blockchain was temporarily halted after the collapse of the stablecoin TerraUSD (UST) and Luna, in an event that wiped out almost $45 billion in market capitalisation within a week.
Vittorio SgarbiVittorio Umberto Antonio Maria Sgarbi (born 8 May 1952 in Ferrara) is an Italian art critic, art historian, writer, politician, cultural commentator and television personality. He is President of the Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art of Trento and Rovereto. He was appointed curator of the Italian Pavilion at the 2011 Venice Biennale. Several times a member of the Italian Parliament, in 2008 he served as Cabinet Member for Culture, Arts and Sports in Milan's municipal government for six months when Mayor Letizia Moratti terminated his mandate as she saw him 'unfit for the job'.
Franco FornariFranco Fornari (Rivergaro, 18 April 1921 - Milan, 20 May 1985) was an Italian psychiatrist, who was influenced by Melanie Klein and Wilfred Bion. He was a professor at the University of Milan and the University of Trento. From 1973 to 1978 he served as president of the Società Psicoanalitica Italiana. Fornari was born in Rivergaro (a hamlet about 20 km south of Piacenza), on 18 April 1921 and died in Milan on 20 May 1985. He graduated in Medicine and Surgery and specialized in neuropsychiatry at the University of Milan.
Alfredo CospitoAlfredo Cospito (born 1967) is an Italian anarchist. In his twenties, he refused conscription to military service and was convicted of desertion, then pardoned after going on hunger strike for one month. In 2012, he was sentenced to 10 years for kneecapping the head of the Italian nuclear power company Ansaldo Nucleare. Whilst imprisoned, he was convicted of the 2006 bombing of a Carabinieri barracks in which nobody was harmed. The Supreme Court of Cassation later increased the sentence to life without parole.
