Ideas about arts

International Gallerie editor Bina Ellias says the magazine is the result of her passion for the arts

by Bella Jaisinghani

EDITOR Bina Sarkar Ellias is a happy person these days. The latest issue of her biannual magazine, International Gallerie, has received a good response in Pakistan where it was launched a fortnight ago. Gallerie’s latest issue explores music, cinema, art, photography, poetry and travel across the border. “This issue is close to my heart because it is an effort to bridge the divide between the two countries. I was in Pakistan around two weeks ago to release the issue there, and we received such a heartwarming response!” she says.

Ms Ellias is a well-known writer and also ran an advertising agency with her husband for 14 years. “It was there that I picked up my skills at production and learnt about the various aspects of bringing out a magazine,” she says. “I was always interested in the arts and have been writing on the subject for a host of publications since 1971.”

International Gallerie, the arts and ideas journal, as Ms Ellias describes it, was a culmination of her passion for art. “We started the magazine around four years ago,” she says. “It is published twice a year so that I get enough time to oversee every single aspect, right from commissioning the articles to writers all over the world, editing them and handling production.”

Gallerie is essentially a solo show; Ms Ellias does not have a team to help co-ordinate editorial or production. “Well, Gallerie is my passion. Besides, I work out of home. I have only just appointed an assistant to handle subscriptions, otherwise I’d been working merely by hijacking a DTP operator when the layouts were done,” she says, and then jokes, “I cannot afford staff!”

Also difficult to swallow is Ms Ellias’ statement that she has no idea of Gallerie’s circulation figures. The magazine is priced at Rs 250, which, she says, barely covers her costs. “In fact, people ask me how I manage to keep the price so low, because there are times when I spend out of my own pocket.”

One look at the biannual and you can confirm her claim about not compromising on production values. However, Ms Ellias would like to dispel the notion that Gallerie is a mere coffee table book. “That’s what people might think before they look at the serious issues we have taken up. Our previous issues have dealt with violence and war,” she says.

But it is her latest issue, the Indo-Pak Friendship Special, that Ms Ellias is most proud of. “The people of Pakistan are happy that somebody here has thought of portraying their country in a positive light. They do want to be friends with India,” she says. “Of course, they are dismayed about Kargil, and are upset over the nuclear tests. Yet, no Pakistani would like to go to war over these things.”

She goes on, “Our two countries have a shared history, our very art and culture is common. It’s just that the differences have been politicised and we react to them.” Does she, then, advocate a policy of detachment from the goings-on in Kashmir or at the border? “No, no, we should react. But one way to address outstanding issues is through the arts,” Ms Ellias says, taking an obviously simplistic view of things. “That is why the launch of every issue of Gallerie is accompanied by a show of the performing arts, or poetry sessions or essay readings,” she goes on. “We don’t like to organise dry lectures on politics.”

Proferring such simplistic solutions to solve a problem that has plagued the subcontinent for over 50 years is skimming the surface. But Ms Ellias is quick to counter, “No, it isn’t. Each of our articles deals with the subject in great detail. We cannot wish away either the Kashmir or the nuclear problem so we suggest a comprehensive dialogue be conducted at the popular level. The two governments should also initiate constructive dialogue,” she says. Spoken like only an editor can.