KUALA Lumpur-based Manila-born artist, Anna Karina Jardin, is an advocate of art in public and cultural diplomacy. She sees the relevance of non-governmental agents and less formal groupings of citizens in diplomacy.
They represent a broader range of actors in the promotion of national identity, culture and heritage. The communication of art is not only limited to aesthetics. It is a pragmatic tool to create an ambience in public diplomacy in projecting representations of policies.
An example is the initiation of the Artdialogo Project in 2016 under the cultural diplomacy bilateral agreement of the Philippines and Malaysia in 2015.
The project involved artists, governments and communities of various backgrounds. It promoted cross-cultural cooperation on a bilateral/multicultural level, public and cultural diplomacy.
It was subsequently adapted for community-based art education frameworks by the local government unit in the Philippines and supported by the Malaysian embassy. Art and artists play pivotal roles in diplomacy and international relations.
Karina's essay, "Rethinking, redesigning and Retooling: The Role of Artists and Art Initiatives for Cultural Diplomacy", in the book 'Art and Civilization' (2023, by ISTAC-IIUM Publications), edited by this writer and Halimah Mohd Said, reiterates that "Art for Cultural Diplomacy" is a mechanism of public diplomacy, "now regarded as a tool to enhance the image of a country and its people's globallly; to share and promote culture and how people think; and also to showcase the development of tourism in the country".
Her essay is one of five in the book that was launched at the International Group Art and Civilisation exhibition, which is being held for three weeks at the International Institute of Islamic Thought and Civilisation (ISTAC) from Aug 16.
The event was launched by German Ambassador Dr Peter Blomeyer. The ISTAC Gallery holds a collection of 33 paintings by 11 artists from four countries: the Philippines, Iran, Romania and Malaysia. Romanian Ambassador Nineta Barbulescu is one of the artists.
Halimah, in her preface, says that the diversity of techniques and styles in the making of the artworks is "influenced no doubt by their own cultural and educational background; art training and practice; and most definitely by their own innate creativity and imagination in lending meaning to an aspect of reality they find relevant to the broad theme of the exhibition, Art and Civilisation".
The collections are in watercolour, acrylic, oil, poster colour and mixed media on paper, canvas and fabric. One also sees a melange of genres — realism, impressionism, expressionism and cubism.
Given the general theme and the diversity of perspectives, one can see art and artists as cultural, social, intellectual and political interveners.
ISTAC's dean, Abdelaziz Berghout, in his foreword talks about the concept of "Responsible Art" and suggests a future direction for a global engagement in art and civilisation.
My essay, titled "East and West: The Getaran Jiwa in the Creative Production Process", evokes the spirit of Wassily Kandinsky's renowned 1914 book, 'Concerning the Spiritual in Art'.
The Russian-born artist, hailed as a visual musician, believed that art is founded on a fundamental truth. There is purpose and ideal. He contends that art is to send light into the darkness of men's heart. Good art has deep and prophetic strength.
Art works upon the soul, where "colour is the keyboard, the eyes are the hammers, the soul is the piano with many strings. The artist is the hand which plays, touching one key or another, to cause vibrations in the soul". This essentialises what would appear many decades later in P. Ramlee's 'Getaran Jiwa'.
The artist, then, is not only like the musician who plucks the lyre to create music, he himself is the lyre creating the music.
Initiatives in manifesting art in cultural diplomacy should not only be in
promoting culture and aesthetics, but also in institutionalising art as deep intellectual and social interactions; the 'jiwa' between and among nations.
The writer is professor of social and intellectual history, International Institute of Islamic Thought and Civilisation, International Islamic University Malaysia