A vision for our arts
SHAKTI MAIRA
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Something special is happening in Korea, in terms of the social and national vision in culture and the arts, which we in India can learn from.
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Moulding an aesthetic sense: Art is closely linked to our daily lives.
SEOUL, South Korea, where I recently attended the International Arts Education Symposium and the UNESCO Asia-Pacific Regional Conference on Art Education, has changed so much since my last visit in 1971. It is now a large, modern city dominated by glass and concrete high-rises and traffic congestion. There is very little of nature left — some Ginkgo trees that were shedding enormous triangular yellow leaves in lyrical clusters, and the jagged hills behind the old palace grounds immortalised in traditional Korean landscape paintings. Other than the odd medieval gate or stone-wall, there is little evidence of Korea's distinctive visual heritage in the city.
Survival of tradition
For that, one has to visit the new National Museum which houses the Korean equivalent of the Mona Lisa — a bronze figure called "The pensive Boddhisattva" that is beautiful and moving. That it is not as well known as Leonardo's painting is a reminder of the lesser importance given to Asian art in the world and emblematic of a continuing dominance of Western art movements in Asia. This latter is evident in the outpouring of new public sculpture in Seoul — a result of a Korean law that requires commercial buildings to spend a percentage of their construction budget on the arts. Most of it is in an "international modern" sculpture style that is increasingly seen in most Asian countries. The dominance of modern design and art styles in Seoul left me wondering about the survival of the quietness and lyricism of Korean aesthetic traditions that had created the most beautiful stone, wood, bronze and cast-iron sculptures.
At the Symposium and Conference, I was very impressed by the Koreans' vision for the arts in their country. Having achieved considerable economic and industrial development, they now seek to become an international centre for the arts — a country that is the best in the world in terms of the value and place of arts and culture in their society. To give you a sense of this vision, I quote from the opening address of Dong-chea Chung, Minister of Culture and Tourism, at the Conference:
"The following thoughts may indicate a real definition of art: my first thought is that the real nature of art cannot be found in the pictures in a museum or an art gallery, but it can be found in the way that we experience our ordinary lives. The second thought is that the real nature of an artistic experience may lie in a process where a human being, as an organism, responds and adapts to the environment and reorganizes his surroundings into culture.
"I believe that art is closely linked to our everyday lives, and I believe in the positive value which art brings to all aspects of our lives. In this respect, I think `arts education' plays a role in helping a process that people experience, put together and reorganise various factors of their lives."
Two other arts infrastructure initiatives stood out in Korea. One, the state-initiated Gwangju project where $1.8 billion are being invested in developing "A Culture Hub City of Asia", which will become the "ground of exchanges, culture creation, studies and education for a peaceful Asia in the future, where culture becomes the engine for economic development". Two, the Korean Business Council for the Arts (KOBCA) that fosters co-operation between businesses and arts communities with the aim "to enhance the interest and the understanding of the Korean people in culture and the arts, as well as contribute to the balanced development of business and the arts".
At the Symposium, I explained the importance of not focusing on the forms of the traditional arts but on their inherent purposes and values in designing art education. This was something I had argued for in my interaction with the NCERT during their 2005 curriculum framework deliberations. Just as in Korea there is a forgetting of Mak that translates both into `tree' and `naturalness' and is a core value in their aesthetics, there is a growing amnesia of Wabi-Sabi in Japan, and Chhandomaya, Rasa and Ananda in India. These aesthetic ideas contain the Asian cultural values we hope to revitalise, and so need to be brought skilfully and imaginatively into art education across Asia.
That insisting on traditional art forms in art education doesn't work became apparent during my brief visit. In an attempt to preserve traditional Korean music, Gugak, the school curriculum in Korea was revised many years ago to make Gugak comprise 50 per cent of the time all children spend on music education from elementary through high school. This does not seem to have had much impact. Western music and instruments dominated the opening ceremony of the Conference where a band played fusion music with a synthesizer, guitar, Western drums, Korean drums and the Korean bamboo flute. Looking to buy a Korean flute, I was directed to a three-storey building filled with music stores. All of them had Western and electronic music equipment but only one had a small section for traditional Korean instruments.
Inspirational
Yet in terms of social and national vision in culture and the arts, there is something special underway in Korea, which we in India can be inspired by and learn from. Kim Koo, one of the founding fathers of modern Korea, described to me as their Gandhi, wrote in his essay `My Desire' in 1947: "I want our nation to become the most beautiful nation in the world. I do not want our nation to become the richest and most powerful nation in the world. Because I have felt the pain of being invaded by another nation. I do not want my nation to invade others. It is sufficient that our wealth is such that it makes our lives abundant and our military strength such that it is able to repel others' invasion. The only thing that I desire in infinite quantity is the power of a highly-developed culture. This is because the arts both makes us happy and gives happiness to others. I am convinced that this will be accomplished by our strength and, particularly, by the power of education."
Having written recently on why we should be wary of following the commerce-driven Western approaches to art infrastructure and art education, I was delighted with what is being attempted in Korea and have some wishes: One, we learn from them the value of art and aesthetics in society and work towards making it central in our nation's life. Two, we collaborate on an Asian contribution to global culture in the 21st Century. Lastly, we emulate their style of talking less and doing more!
Shakti Maira is a noted contemporary artist. .
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