Creativity is courage. Not everyone is daring enough to take that one step, which will change the world; that one risk. But Delhi-based businessman Monish Bali is not just anybody. He has taken the leap of faith to create a new concept in decor—a house of panache called El Garbo, in Jangpura, south Delhi.
In El Garbo—‘the grace’ in Spanish—reside over 50 handmade objects d’art conceptualised and curated by Bali. “On my 50th birthday, I decided I wanted to do something different. Something radical which has never been done by anyone.” He avoided sticking to a fixed formula or theme. The varied range of products—rugs, paintings, sculptures, centrepieces, furniture, and exclusive handmade vintage art—is a result of this. “I wanted to create something larger than life,” says the 51-year-old. And he did.
Guarding the design hub entrance is a four-tonne lion, carved from a single rock. The beginning was with a sculpture—Avatar, the horsehead—which took five months to make. “It came out as too perfect a piece, so I told them to put some dents on its face, and I got the effect I wanted,” says Bali, adding that the permutations and combinations of the motifs were playing simultaneously in his mind like scenes from a Greta Garbo period film.
The collection includes a painted metal cello and a telephone booth with clever storage space, imported pianos, an exclusive handmade vintage Rolls-Royce, which serves as an office desk or bar counter, a plush Jaguar car-sofa, paintings by Gautam Dey and Swapan Roy, a one-line drawing titled ‘Leg Horn’ by Swapan Maity, and works of Bangladeshi artist Bishwajit Goswami.
In the luxury furniture range, El Garbo offers a pool table-cum-dining table. Adam and Eve—two chairs cut from single marble pieces each weighing 500 kg—and a wooden meeting table with the theme ‘time’ add to the range.
Among the five floorwear on offer is the last licenced rug by the cult American graphic designer Late Rex Ray, ‘Eye of the Tiger’, which adorns the entrance hall in 28 colours. Another rug has been inspired by jewels and yet another depicts The Big Ben. “It took the artists two years to complete them,” says Bali, who plans to expand his house of design this year.
The curator’s favourite pieces are The Skull and The Prowess. The massive 150-kg skull has been embellished with 4.5 lakh stainless steel beads giving it an outre look, and The Prowess—a 200-kg sculpture—levitates on a single pivot. “They were the toughest and most time-consuming art pieces,” he says.
In addition, on offer are reconstructed Harley-Davidson motorcycles, aircraft and Spartan war masks from the movie 300. Many of the pieces have been booked within a month of the design hub’s opening.