Have you ever wondered what art really is? The highest form of creative genius, the best version of artistic thought, captured through internal intuition inspiration? Or simply dissimilarity to others and the courage to go against patterns, non-conformism, which is disapproved, but ultimately opens up new facets of the beauty of our lives?
It so happened that the last two months allotted for the preparation of this issue, questions of art, creativity and culture have occupied me more than others. Maybe because my interlocutors were people for whom culture became part of their vocation, like an amazing violinist and writer Mikhail Kazinik or a talented Lebanese director and composer Marwan Rahbani. Or maybe because in this issue we ourselves plunged into the process of creating artistic history. In the photo project "Last Date" / #Lastdatestory, we showed one episode from life that could have happened to anyone - "He invites her to a farewell dinner in the hope of returning back." And even if we showed only a small plot, we still dared to go beyond simple fashion shooting and show emotions - that’s why any art is created. It is up to you to judge what came of it, but the preparation itself and the final incarnation gave us great pleasure. Maybe this is the act of creativity - the creation of history, which then begins to live its own life?
After all, even the magazine that you are holding now in your hands initially looked like a column of potential topics. And then, step by step, material (sometimes in agony) was born, material after material, which was adjusted and polished in order to reveal the original idea as much as possible. We, the editorial staff, can safely call ourselves lucky, because when a magazine comes from a printing house, we see the result of our work, our strengths and creative ideas - what was once indicated by only a few lines on paper.
And I want to add that Dubai, as it seems to me, is becoming an ideal platform for the implementation of creative projects. Let the sphere of art here only be in its infancy, let the Opera House and the Louvre branch just be under construction - the air is already breaking apart from the creative ideas of its inhabitants. There are not so many cities on earth in the period of such rapid growth and implementation of the most original ideas. In a couple of years, the city may well become the new center of contemporary arts and the attraction of leading cultural figures. Everything is possible here, which means that there are no barriers to creativity. The only condition is to have the courage to offer your idea.
Irina Malkova
