Throughout 2026, the Cittadellarte Journal is hosting a series of interviews with the Foundation's collaborators, who are asked to answer an identical set of questions. Cittadellarte in the mirror – this is the name of the column – is designed as an exercise in listening and self-reflection that spans different roles, practices, and sensibilities, offering a plural portrait of the Cittadellarte organism. The questions touch upon some of the most urgent issues 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 as a mirror: they do not seek definitive answers, but ask the respondents to take a stand, to put themselves out there, and to question their own role in the present.

In this twentieth instalment, the mirror turns to Alessandro Pastore, head of IT systems at Cittadellarte. Born in 1966 in a completely analogue world, he has been a professional in the IT field for thirty years, first running his own company and now as a collaborator. A father to a 20-year-old son, he operates mainly in the north-eastern quadrant of Piedmont and, specifically, works as a Linux and Windows systems engineer with several years spent developing web applications. Since 1998, he has passionately followed the whole Open Source world, in the belief that it represents computing designed for people. "I have always been fascinated," he stated, "by things that work: first engines, then computing, and now our minds. Furthermore, I am very interested in the socio-economic development of our mountains, outdoor activities, and my motorcycle, which I ride whenever I can."

In the interview that follows, he brings into Cittadellarte’s mirror a perspective matured over thirty years of work in the world of computing, but also through the continuous observation of the social and cultural changes accompanying our time. Pastore reads the present by questioning some of the answers built up in recent years: from social transformation to the spread of artificial intelligence, right down to the relationship between the individual and the community.

From his words, it is clear how throughout his professional journey he has navigated the evolution of technology whilst keeping one question central: how can the tools we create remain at the service of people? A question that also returns in his way of looking at Cittadellarte, between technical experience and attention to human dynamics.

2025 ended as a year in which the word “transition” seemed to have lost its strength, replaced by a widespread sense of weariness and a return to the logics of power, war, and closure. In this context, does it still make sense to talk about responsible social transformation, or do we need to change our lexicon and rethink our practices?
Does it make sense to talk about transition? Does it make sense to talk about responsible social transformation? Yes. But we must also have the courage to change our lexicon and rethink our practices. Because, in my opinion, many of the responses put in place in recent years have proved to be wrong. There is a part of society that defines itself as progressive, in its various forms, which failed to see – or did not want to see – how our society was changing. This does not just concern Italy: it is a phenomenon crossing many Western societies. The drift we are experiencing started a long time ago and was allowed to grow. I don’t have definitive solutions, but I believe the mistake was not fully understanding people's deep needs. It is precisely those unheeded needs that have left room for authoritarian drifts, abuses of power, and economic imbalances that have allowed a few to accumulate ever greater wealth. This is why I believe it is necessary to radically rethink the logics with which we interpret society and the way we try to transform it.

This year, too, Cittadellarte operated on both a local and global level: from China to the borders of Europe, from the Mediterranean to East Asia. Bringing an installation or a demopratic work to places fraught with history, conflict, or symbolism exposes art to unpredictable interpretations. How important is it for the Foundation to accept this risk?Action on both a local and global level, through the work of Michelangelo Pistoletto and the Foundation, demonstrates which direction needs to be followed, especially when talking about democracy/demopraxy and Preventive Peace. I believe that this is precisely the path to take.

In 2026, what does it mean to educate for responsibility in a world where algorithms, artificial intelligence, and automation seem to strip away more and more space from conscious human action and, in this sense, from authorship?
I believe that algorithms and artificial intelligence have already profoundly altered our culture and our way of experiencing society, especially among the younger generations, who are also the most exposed. Conscious human action must necessarily start again from the bottom: it must spring from people and communities, because the stakes are too high and this drift can hardly be stopped from the top down alone.

In the time you have spent at Cittadellarte, what do you feel you have unlearned? Is there a conviction you would let go of today compared to the past?
In the time spent at Cittadellarte, I think I have unlearned having certainties. Furthermore, I have learned to reason more and more based on the experience of the moment, leaving room for the possibility that things can change.

Let’s try to consider Cittadellarte as a living organism. Which part do you feel is most fragile today? And which, on the other hand, is more mature than you would have imagined?Paradoxically, I believe the most fragile part is the bond with the Biella territory. At the same time, I consider Cittadellarte's international dimension to be very strong and mature: the recognition it has built worldwide is profound, as is its capacity to develop activities and projects in diverse contexts.

We live in a time where we are exposed daily to images of extreme pain, yet we often remain unmoved. What kind of emotion is indifference? If the latter were a work of art, would you destroy it, like a shattering of Pistoletto’s mirror?
Faced with daily images of pain, we experience above all a condition of absolute helplessness. In my mind, peaceful possibilities exist to escape this helplessness. Still, often people's most immediate response is to become indifferent: to build armour, closing themselves off in their own private, daily dimension. If indifference were a work by Michelangelo Pistoletto, yes, I would gladly destroy it.

In the dominant and 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 spectacularisation of pain? Let us also bear in mind that the 2025 word of the year, according to the Oxford Dictionary, is "Rage Bait", which denotes content created to provoke anger and indignation, particularly on social media.
Numbers risk erasing people. I believe that today one of the tasks of art is precisely to restore a face, a story, and an identity to those who are reduced to a statistic. Perhaps art can contribute to awakening society, reminding us that we cannot accept that certain lives are pushed to the margins or made invisible.

When you turn off the lights in your office, which emotion stays switched on?
When I turn off the lights in my office, all the lights linked to the quality of my personal life stay switched on.