Giulia Cristofoli
Letter From the Editor
Dear reader,
In literature, there is a device called beginning in media res. This is what they call when a story starts right in the middle. Instead of presenting the setting or characters, some books welcome us with a speech or an action. They don’t give us time to breathe and go straight to business. You can think of Maupassant’s Bel Ami, a novel that starts, with no contextualization, with the main character leaving the supermarket. In cinema, we could mention Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction that opens in the middle of a couple’s dialogue, or Fight Club by Fincher, in a more extreme example, as we see the character for the first time with a gun in his mouth.
Today, we have the beginning of All in Art Magazine. And in some sense, you are experiencing a beginning in media res. Of course you will argue with me that before, we didn’t exist. From this point on, we are something, our plot starts. But actually, our story goes way back. What you are reading and seeing in your little screen wasn’t born today. We aren’t beginning our story just now. Today is the result of months of preparation, of thinking, conceptualizing, writing, making mistakes, fixing them, learning, editing, researching and putting a lot of love in this project. All in all, there is no better way to describe our beginning. It is in the middle of action; appearing out of the blue in the middle of our individual stories; it is in media res.
Maybe, I can trace the starting point of the magazine to a boring rainy afternoon on February in my room. I remember the papers spread on my bed, the blankets all around and my laptop in front of me. I remember coming down the stairs running to tell my brother – who, at the time, was also my roommate – that “I have an idea!” Maybe, fellow art lovers, that is our beginning. Then, again, we can also argue that in reality, this idea has always been sitting in a corner of my mind, just waiting to be discovered. The important part is that I dusted this corner and an idea shone through. And what an idea… an art magazine.
And yes, you guessed right, dear reader, I was extremely bored when it came to me. The idea, I mean. This magazine was born out of boredom. But it quickly escalated; it blossomed.
It flourished into activity, ambition, excitement, fear, love and all feelings a new challenge can bring.
Of course, we wouldn’t be here today, you wouldn’t be reading this today – or ever – if this dream of mine wasn’t shared with others (and maybe that’s the beginning). It is a nice feeling to have what you think is a great idea. But there is also the question of acceptance: is an art magazine something that people really want, or am I just delusional and living in my own little fantasy world? Lucky me, I discover the even better feeling of the former. It is nice to have an idea, but it is better yet when people embrace it with you. All of a sudden, I saw the future staff of this magazine just as excited as I was. The moment people started to be willing to participate and help out, it was the moment I realized it was possible. It was delightfully frightening.
And so we prepared. There were meetings, and schedules. There were doubts, and re-writings. There were getting to know new people, and working with old friends. And now, after months of preparing to transform the cold of a rainy day into the coziness of a website, after working to give you the best beginning we could think of, after planning our grand debut in media res…
... we welcome you, our dear reader.
