On the occasion of the publication of
“Flames of Love”
Armanshahr’s new publication Master Najibullah Anwari and Mehdi Banaei
Armanshahr Foundation*, in collaboration with the French Institute of Afghanistan invites you to the
87 th (year VI) public debate GOFTEGU :
From the Fairy of Arts to the Monster of War
Speakers: Professor Alem Farhad (Director of the Faculty of Fine Arts , Kabul University), M. Jawed Farhad (Poet and researcher), Professor Aslam Jawadi (Director of the Faculty of social sciences Kateb University)
Moderator: Rooholamin Amini
*Member of the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH)
Mercredi/Wednesday 25 avril/April. 2012, 14:00 H. (Debate in Dari), French Institute of Afghanistan (Lycée Esteqlal), Tel: 0779217755 & 0775321697, E-mail: armanshahrfoundation.openasia@gmail.com, http://armanshahropenasia.wordpress.com
From the fairy of arts to the monster of war
Rooholamin Amini
“From the fairy of arts to the monster of war” was the title of the 87th Goftegu(6th year), a bridge between the elite and the citizens, of Armanshahr Foundation,which was held in cooperation with the French Cultural Institute of Kabul in the Institute on 25 April 2012.
The monthly public debates have been held every month in Kabul and Herat in the past six years and they are still held regularly.
The latest public debate was organised to mark the publication of the “Flames of Love”, comprising an exquisite collection of 12 calligraphy masterpieces by Master Najibullah Anwari of poems by Mowlana Jalaleddin Rumi, Hafiz of Shiraz, Bidel-Dehlawi, Mowlana Abdurrahman Jami, and Master Shahriyar, which Mehdi Banaeihad gilded.
This publication is one of the first of its kind to be published in Afghanistan.
The first speaker of the public debate was Professor Alem Farhad (Director of the Faculty of Fine Arts, Kabul University), who took a social approach to arts and described the relationship of art and society in particular in Afghanistan. His basic argument was that an artist must be committed to their surroundings and the society must be committed to arts and artists. Reminding the cultural and social differences of our society with other countries, he pointed out that an artist living in Afghanistan has to take into consideration the social and cultural conditions in this country.
The next speaker, M. Jawed Farhad (poet and researcher), discussed the minimalist interpretation of arts as well as that of the modernists and post-modernists. Mr. Farhad referred to theories of Adorno, Croce and Tolstoy on arts. The main part of his speech however concerned the relationship of arts and commitment. He said there were at least two different theories in this respect. The first theory combines arts and commitment. The second regards arts to be independent of any restriction even restriction by commitment.
He said: In my opinion, even if arts aim to create beauty for the sake of beauty, it cannot be done without commitment. What kind of commitment? One kind of it is when we decide to create our work based on our conviction. The second kind is that an artist is intrinsically committed.
In our society today, interpretations of cinema, dancing and drama are superficial. Even though painting and miniature are rooted in Afghanistan, they are afflicted generally with some kind of cliché type attitude. There are admirable and occasionally amazing works of painting and miniature, but on individual basis. We have had two types of commitment in arts in Afghanistan. The first was based on the leftist ideology and the second on the right wing ideology. Neither impacted the growth of arts in Afghanistan
The last speaker was Professor Aslam Jawadi (Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences Kateb University) who started by asking a question: What is the relationship between arts and society?
There are different answers to this question. I shall try to advance my arguments based on Adorno’s theories. Marxists believed that artist must be at the service of the society and reflect the problems, suffering and social grievances. From this viewpoint, arts that did not reflect social problems were alien to people’s suffering and at the service of the oppressors.
However, Adorno, a thinker of the Frankfurt School with Marxist roots, believed that arts do not have to serve the society. Arts cannot be reduced to commitment. An artist has to operate under the laws and rules of the world of arts. That means, they may occasionally be at the service of the society and occasionally not.
Invitation to 87th Goftegu Public Debate: Flames of Love
