Throughout 2026, the Cittadellarte Journal is hosting a series of interviews with the Foundation’s collaborators, called to respond to an identical set of questions. Cittadellarte in the Mirror - this is the name of the column - presents itself as an exercise in listening and self-reflection that crosses different roles, practices, and sensibilities, returning a plural portrait of the Cittadellarte organism. The questions touch upon some of the most urgent nodes of our time - from social transformation to responsibility, from education to indifference, from the risk of artistic action to the possibility of reactivating empathy - and function like a mirror: they do not seek definitive answers, but ask those who respond to take a position, to expose themselves, to question their own role in the present.

In this eleventh instalment, the mirror turns to Olga Pirazzi, director of the Fashion Office of Cittadellarte Fondazione Pistoletto with the Fashion B.E.S.T. project. Olga is a professional with experience in the development and coordination of projects in the field of sustainable fashion, with a systemic approach to the textile supply chain and to themes of transparency, traceability, and environmental and social responsibility. For the Pistoletto Foundation, she coordinates research, development, and production activities aimed at promoting innovative and responsible practices in the fashion sector. Her work focuses on the integration of creativity, innovation, social responsibility, and environmental sustainability, promoting new models of production and consumption in the fashion system. Pirazzi also collaborates with fashion designers, companies, and institutions in the design of sustainable collections, overseeing the research and selection of innovative materials and fabrics and supporting the integration of sustainability criteria along the entire production chain.
In the dialogue that follows, a vision of fashion emerges as a complex ecosystem, in which every choice - from the material to the production process to daily use - is part of a network of relations involving people, territories, and resources. Among the central issues are the need to make transformation concrete and actionable, the role of technology as a tool to be integrated critically, and the possibility of overcoming indifference through a greater awareness of the stories and responsibilities that every garment carries with it.

2025 closes as a year in which the word “transition” seems to have lost its force, replaced by a widespread sense of fatigue and a return to the logic of power, war, and closure. In this context, does it still make sense to speak of responsible social transformation, or is it necessary to change the vocabulary and rethink practices?
The fashion system is in continuous transformation and is one of the sectors that experiences these changes with the greatest speed. Currently, it is crossed by an evident tension: on one side, awareness grows regarding the need to transform production models; on the other, the sector must deal with already known dynamics, often based on the speed of production, quantity, and continuous consumption. In this context, speaking of social transformation still makes a lot of sense, but it is now indispensable to ground it in practices. In the field of responsible fashion, transformation concerns practices first of all: the way we choose materials, organise supply chains, assume social responsibilities, and rethink the lifespan of clothes and their relationship with human and planetary resources. More than changing the vocabulary, it is necessary to make the change concrete and actionable. Responsibility in fashion is a process that requires time, responsibility, and the capacity to rethink the relationship between creativity, production, and the environment. In this sense, transformation becomes a daily construction involving designers, producers, and consumers within a system of circular eco-design. I believe the solution is not to find stronger words, but to build practices that make the change real and inhabitable. Sustainable fashion must translate into a mature system, coexisting with contradictions and learning to navigate them with responsibility.

This year as well, Cittadellarte has operated on a local and global level: from China to border-Europe, from the Mediterranean to East Asia. Bringing an installation or a demopractic work to places charged with history, conflict, or symbolism exposes art to unpredictable readings. How important is it for the Foundation to accept this risk?
Working across different geographical and cultural contexts means confronting the real complexity of the fashion and art systems, which by their nature have no borders. Textile supply chains, artisanal traditions, access to resources, and production conditions vary widely across contexts, and bringing sustainable fashion projects into these contexts inevitably exposes the work to unpredictable interpretations, reactions, and connections. Accepting this risk is fundamental, as sustainability in fashion cannot be treated as a single model to apply everywhere. It must rather be born from the dialogue between territories, production cultures, and local knowledge. When you enter different contexts, you often discover that many practices considered “innovative” today are already part of rooted traditions. For this reason, there should not be a system of predefined solutions, but rather the will to create spaces and experiences of comparison between different realities. It is precisely from these encounters that new perspectives for rethinking a system can emerge; therefore, more than a risk, I see it as an opportunity, challenging but infinite.

In 2026, what does it mean to educate for responsibility in a world where algorithms, artificial intelligence, and automation seem to subtract more and more space from conscious human action and, in this sense, from authorship? Production and consumption, even in the fashion system, are increasingly influenced-and often even fascinated-by algorithms, artificial intelligence, and automation. These tools have the capacity to lighten many steps, anticipate tastes, accelerate creative processes, and make production more efficient, reducing friction in choices and decisions. Precisely for this reason, it becomes even more important to maintain a critical awareness. In the specific case of fashion, in fact, it is not just a flow of images or data, but a reality made of materials, human labour, natural resources, and social relations. The challenge is not to oppose technology, but to integrate innovation and responsibility to build a new balance. Algorithms fascinate because they simplify processes, suggest possibilities, and anticipate trends, but fashion has always been a balance between imagination and matter, between the desire for lightness and the concrete reality of materials, labour, and resources. Ignoring the potential of technology would be a mistake; if these tools help reduce waste, improve the management of supply chains, or enhance human labour, they can contribute to a positive transformation of the system, while maintaining the sense and direction of choices as a profoundly human responsibility.

In the time spent at Cittadellarte, what do you feel you have unlearned? Is there a conviction that you would let go of today compared to the past?
I believe I have understood, also through the power of art that crosses every action of our life, the profound responsibilities of the fashion system. I have learned to consider the garment almost as a work of art, recognising its value and understanding that it is not just an aesthetic object, but the result of a network of relationships involving materials, territories, and people. Behind every item, there are production chains, artisanal knowledge, and choices that have consequences in many areas of our lives and society. In this sense, I have let go of a vision of fashion as a language separate from the reality for which it is responsible, and I have begun to recognise it as a space, a complex ecosystem, in which every decision-from the design to production to daily use-actively participates in broader dynamics.

Let’s try to consider Cittadellarte a living organism. Which part do you feel is most fragile today? And which is more mature than you would have imagined?
If I think of Cittadellarte as a living organism, I would say that today it is going through a phase of changing its own language. For a long time, Cittadellarte has explored fashion also as a cultural and artistic practice, experimenting with materials, supply chains, and innovative processes in different contexts. Today, this research has become a recognisable model, often a concrete example of responsibility and sustainability applied to the fashion system, but it remains in a general context that is still fragile, always evolving, which requires a balance between experimentation, concrete production, and real impact. At the same time, what appears most mature is the capacity of Cittadellarte to integrate aesthetics, ethics, innovation, and social responsibility. Cittadellarte remains a construction site unique in its kind, where tools, projects, and collaborations are developed that allow sustainable fashion to speak with clarity, valuing local and international supply chains and the care of social aspects. This maturity allows the transformation of experimentation into replicable practices, making fashion a space where creativity, responsibility, and concrete impact meet.

We live in a time when we are exposed daily to images of extreme pain, yet we often remain immobile. What kind of emotion is indifference? If the latter were a work of art, would you destroy it like a breaking of Pistoletto’s mirror? Indifference is a dangerous state, a bit like when we close our eyes to the consequences of our choices, when the feeling of impotence detaches us from the real world, even though we know that every action of ours has a concrete story behind it. If indifference were a work of art, perhaps I too would feel the need to destroy it, like Pistoletto’s shattered mirror, precisely to break that distance between production and consumption, between aesthetics and responsibility. Working on sustainable fashion means trying to transform this distance into attention, ensuring that every choice, project, or garment tells its own story, connects us to people and the environment, and pushes us to act with awareness. Perhaps even fashion can stop being indifferent only if we learn to truly look at it. Pain, unfortunately, has been part of each of our lives since forever. The question is not only how to eliminate it, but what meaning we attribute to our actions. Many of the critical issues we face do not derive from our nature, but from human relationships. The search for meaning does not eliminate these problems, but it introduces a responsibility, and when this awareness emerges, even small changes in personal design choices or in behaviours can open new possibilities.

In the dominant media narrative of conflicts, numbers often replace faces. What responsibility does art have in restoring humanity where political language erases it? Can art reactivate empathy without falling into the spectacularization of pain? Let us also take into account that the word of the year 2025, according to the Oxford Dictionary, is "Rage Bait", which indicates content created to provoke anger and indignation, particularly on social media.
Individual responsibility is similar to that of art, restoring humanity where the system tends to simplify or erase the human. Often, in the media and marketing, including fashion, numbers tons of materials, quantities produced, sales, replace the real faces of those who grow the fibres, those who work in the workshops, and those who transform materials into clothes. Fashion can reactivate empathy by telling the stories of the people, communities, and territories behind each garment, creating real connections, showing that behind a fabric there is work, skill, tradition, and commitment. In a time dominated by “Rage Bait”, where anger and indignation are rapidly stimulated online, it is fundamental to create spaces for slow reflection, in which to look, understand, and act, rather than limiting oneself to reacting. Art is a powerful tool of empathy, warmth, and awareness, capable of making us feel like participants in stories that would otherwise remain invisible.

When you turn off the lights in your office, what emotion remains lit?
In truth, a single emotion does not remain. I do not experience the office as a physical place, but as an open meeting place to develop my commitment. Turning off the lights only means momentarily suspending a commitment that continues to live even outside, in the form of a particular attention.
Awareness and curiosity to look for better ways to design remain lit, along with a feeling of active responsibility, mixed with wonder for the possibilities that we have at our disposal every day.

Photo Credits
Photographer: Nicholas Fols.
Stylist: Belen Sancristobal.
Hair & Makeup: Althea Lucic and Daniela Galati.