Alain Elkann's classist article sparks debate on intellectual elitism in art world

Alain Elkann's article in Repubblica about feeling marginalized by tattooed youths on a train has ignited a fierce debate on social media and in the press. Elkann, a writer and father of the newspaper's publisher, described his journey surrounded by young people speaking loudly about women and football, using profanity, while he read the Financial Times, New York Times, and Proust's Recherche in the original French. The piece, intended perhaps ironically, was widely perceived as snobbish and classist. Critic Daniele Capra on Artribune draws parallels to Antonio Gramsci's analysis of Italian intellectuals as a caste detached from the people, citing Gramsci's Prison Notebooks. Capra argues that Elkann's attitude reflects a broader pathology in the art world, where professionals—curators, critics, artists—claim openness and leftist values but remain in ivory towers, cultivating distance from the common public. The article criticizes the art world's self-referentiality, incomprehensible content, and narcissistic display of cultural capital, ultimately serving to separate the happy few from ordinary people.