Simultaneous release of four magazines
at Aakriti Art Gallery

Aakriti Art Gallery and Emami Chisel Arts Pvt Ltd jointly hosted an event of releasing four art magazines simultaneously and a panel discussion on the topic of “Sources of Departure, sites of no-return”. The magazine named Art Etc from Kolkata was released by Dr. Reimer Volker, Director, Goethe-Institut/Max Mueller Bhavan Kolkata, Depart from Dhaka was released by eminent artist Ganesh Haloi, Gallerie from Mumbai was released by renowned artist Jogen Chowdhury, Art Journal from Mumbai was released by celebrated artist Lalu Prasad Shaw. Art news & views, a monthly on art and culture, published from Kolkata was introduced on this occasion by artist Chhatrapati Dutta. Mr. Dutta, in his speech requested the audience to come forward and support the art magazines by subscribing and advertising in them.

This is a remarkable event because any such simultaneous release of magazines has not taken place in India before. The evening also saw an interesting panel discussion where the participants were Dr. Paula Banerjee, Honorary Senior Researcher, Mahanirban Calcutta Research Group, Bina Sarkar Ellias, Editor, Gallerie, Ebadur Rahman, Executive Editor, Depart and Sharmishtha Ray, artist, art historian and curator was the moderator of the discussion. Amit Mukhopadhyay, Editor, Art Etc and Rajendra, Editor, Art Journal were also present along with a team of Art Varta. The audience comprised of many well known artists like Tapas Konar, Sekhar Roy, Samindranath Majumder, Janak Jhankar Narzary, Pradip Rakshit and others, art critics Pranabranjan Ray and Nanak Ganguly and other renowned people from various walks of life. The main aspect of the discussion was about the positive and negative sides of migration. Dr. Paula Banerjee emphasized on the point that migration is not always negative; there are obviously some positive sides to it always. But according to her, we cannot keep aside the strong negative sides which are much more dominant. There is a push factor of the negative side which ultimately leads the people towards violence and the result is relentless bloodshed of the innocent people. Pranabranjan Ray also supported her in this context and brought into the light of discussion- the effect of migration on the various forms of art. He mentioned that the art world always deals with the lament and the gruesome memories generated due to migration because migration is always synonymous with abandonment. On the other hand, Nanak Ganguly came up with the fact that not only the push factor of migration, but also the pull factor has lead to the creation of many remarkable films and books to which Dr. Paula Banerjee agreed. Bina Sarkar Ellias, has brought out in the current issue of Gallerie magazine, the topics related to Palestine and the condition of art and culture over there. She read out two poems from her magazine which describe the situation of the Palestinians in their own country and how they have become homeless. The show had been aptly moderated by Sharmishtha Ray and the applause of the audience at the end of the discussion proved the worth of such a refined and incredible discussion.

  Sourya Deb