E | Alessio Sartore [ENG]

Fifth Story for Balzi,
Alessio Sartore,
Today’s work as a choice,
As a convinction,
As creation,
Of a life that is yours.
To exist means to be.

I. Hi Alessio! Explain to us who you are!

I am someone who likes travelling. I got lost on a road in Arizona, without gasoline, blazing hot and cactuses looking at me and asking “Why are you here?”.

I bathed in a Finnish freezing lake right under the Artic Polar Circle. I realised we can actually become invisible at Shibuya’s train station in Tokyo.

I cycled for 100 kilometres on Table Mountain close to Cape Town, in South Africa, to realise that, at the end of the last hill, there was a sight on a wavy ocean, a tepid breeze and penguins waiting for me.

I ate the most delicious meal of my life in Essaouira in Morocco. At Selinunte in Sicily I had the feeling I could hold the Mediterranean Sea in my hand.

I live in Verona, a city that has always fascinated me, if you just walk in Fama Road, in the city centre.

II. You have engaged yourself on many fronts: journalism, photography, illustrations, books, research, music. WOW. From which one of these did you start and what pushed you to “create” in more and more settings?

I believe everyone finds joy in creating something, it does not matter of which kind, it is just a way of expressing a sentiment.

When you hold in your hands a feeling it is then easy to transform it in something creative such as a tune, a text, a design. The important thing is grasping it in that precise moment and not letting it run away! (because it does run away).

III. Creativity is also the basis for Uncò Mag, an online magazine that includes stories of young people who invented a job for themselves, of which you are creator and editor. How did the role work plays today change, compared to a couple of decades ago?

Not only work changed, but also the approach to it. Everyone says it but I repeat it: thinking about a fixed job today is a common mistake.

It is better to know that you job is a temporary one, like businesses such as restaurant and shops. How long does it last? A short period of time.

That is why it is important to shape your profile both horizontally (meaning you know and manage different areas of interest) and vertically (you specialise on something or someone). A “T” shape. Then, depending on the occasions, the “T” extends or enlarges itself.

And one more thing: you need to stay on the road. Your computer is useful, but ideas are kinetic, they come to you only if you move.

IV. One opinion from you: how does a young person today, a young graduate, transform expectations of a generation that is not his/hers anymore into a research towards a personal vocation?

Perhaps the expectations instilled by a generation that is not his/hers are NOT his/her expectations, and realising it is already a first step. Personal research is continuous; I would say it is eternal.

I do not think vocation exists, it is a matter of choice.

I found this quote in a book by Charles Taylor, which I think fits the purpose: “Choice is not only a preference: it is, instead, a conviction, an ontology, for which a certain lifestyle deserves to be lived, although rules governing it might be difficult to follow”. That’s what I mean, it is a conviction, not an expectation.