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'€˜Bhinneka Tunggal Ika'€™: Between art and beauty

If the philosophy of art began with Plato, its origins were, paradoxically enough, to condemn beautiful art and poetry

Daoed Joesoef (The Jakarta Post)
Jakarta
Sat, May 17, 2014

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'€˜Bhinneka Tunggal Ika'€™: Between art and beauty

I

f the philosophy of art began with Plato, its origins were, paradoxically enough, to condemn beautiful art and poetry.

For Plato, beautiful art as such seemingly did not exist. Art is regarded as techne, a Greek word meaning '€œthe method of doing'€. Does it mean that fine art, poetry and music have no specific place in the entirety of techne?

The Indonesian vocabulary is far richer in terms of expressing '€œthe method of doing'€. A rhyme manifesting the local wisdom of our forebears reads:

Adat belibis mabuk berenang, adat kinantan mabuk berlaga.

Adat gadis menyusun kembang, adat jantan menyabung nyawa.

(Teals are fervently swimming, while roosters are passionately in combat. Ladies are eagerly engaged in the art of flower arranging, while gentlemen are ardently involved in the art of fighting).

The Western phrases for menyusun kembang and menyabung nyawa are, respectively, the art of
flower arranging and the art of fighting.

So, the two methods of doing are expressed in the form of art. In our language, flower arranging is also described as seni (art) menyusun kembang, because it reflects an effort more inclined toward feeling, whereas fighting is seen as a kiat or strategy rather than art, because in fighting one should rely more on reason.

In Balinese, the word seni is even said to be absent, but it is impossible to consider the Balinese people without some activity in art.

They have a deep comprehension of beauty in everything, as their religious faith requires splendor and exaltation in music, dance and attitude, which is recognized and respected by nations around the world.

Their actions and attitude are essentially not meant to attract tourists and draw dollars. It is the governments, central and regional, that are exploiting the genuine and spontaneous beauty of Bali for the sake of greenbacks.

Art, of whatever persuasion, has a connection with beauty.

On second thoughts, Plato does not in fact ignore the beauty of art. His philosophical works even contain an analysis of the psychological and physiological impact of art and a description of poetic enthusiasm in esthetics that have now been developing in the world since the 18th century.

But he defines beauty through the understanding of a nemesis, which is inferior ontologically, by distancing it from reality, from ideas, to which beauty should lead, through a circular movement.

So in Plato'€™s view, there is some place for beautiful art, but this art takes the form of dialectics rather than art according to the current notion, which produces beautiful things that offer pleasure.

Platonic beauty attempts to purify pleasure and replaces it through the intellectual assumption of what is essential. Beauty, therefore, although sensible, is not something typical of works of art, but something that in fact leads to purification.

In this way, producing and distributing fake paintings for financial gain is a crime, a sinful act because it tarnishes beauty. The forged pictures can be admired by viewers but their distributors/sellers are at the same time '€œdeceiving'€ and '€œkilling'€.

They deceive collectors and laypeople and, worse, kill the works'€™ original painters in physical, mental and spiritual terms. Fake works, thus, amount to an intellectual crime that is hard to forgive.

People often say coastal scenery at sunset is beautiful. A full moon also gives a beautiful view. True love is beautiful, too. Scientists consider math quite beautiful.

During the recent legislative election, some banners carried the motto that peace was very beautiful. So, what does beauty truly mean?

You can show me a sunset panorama or a view enhanced by a full moon, but you can'€™t tell me its beauty exactly as you feel or comprehend it. In other words, beauty doesn'€™t qualify something in the same sense as that given by red or white.

Beauty is a quality steeped in human subjectivity. Esthetic judgment, according to philosopher Emmanuel Kant, is an evaluation of a personal relationship, something whispered by sunset or moonlight to its observer, or not suggested, and definitely not absolute.

The beauty of love or scenery is unequal to a coin or banknote that can change hands with an official nominal value valid for everybody based on mutual agreement. The beauty of love, for instance, is felt according to the most individual part of our own heart.

Thus, if we discuss beauty as it should be, we don'€™t seek a common yardstick. It means that if we evaluate beauty in love, in works of art or natural objects, we are actually searching for what is different, for what is happening, what we can see or feel and can'€™t be seen or felt by others.

In the words of English poet John Keats, '€œa thing of beauty is a joy forever'€. As English intellectual Samuel Taylor Coleridge put it, '€œbeauty is a unity in variety'€. He made the conclusion after tracing the definitions of beauty to the ancient Greeks. He found what he sought in the statement of Greek philosopher and mathematician Pythagoras.

'€œThe safest definition, then, of Beauty, as well as the oldest,'€ he said, '€œis that of Pythagoras: the reduction of many to one'€.

Take a look at a painting. Various colors are there, but all of them present one sight. Listen to a musical performance; diverse sounds, tones and voices can be heard, but the variety is reduced to one piece of music, hence the reduction of many to one, which is called beauty.

The same is true of food. There are different vegetables and spices widely known here as gado-gado, but the mixture offers a pleasant taste and this reality is beauty, the reduction of many to one!

In this understanding, beauty as unity in diversity is indeed nothing new to us. Literary man Mpu Tantular already voiced his idea of Bhinneka Tunggal Ika, or unity in diversity, in the 14th century.

And the keen intellect of the founding fathers of the Republic of Indonesia was capable of understanding the beauty of this idea, so that it was made the motto on the coat of arms of the unitary state of Indonesia.

Bhinneka Tunggal Ika is really a beautiful concept of universal nature, because it forms a synergy between two very decisive human factors; namely, the power of reason, concerning unity, and the courage of heart, concerning integrity. Unity means unifying and upholding common features.

Integrity signifies the acceptance of differences with sincerity and high tolerance.

The writer, a former education minister, is an alumnus of the Universite Pluridisicplinaires Pantheon, the Sorbonne, France.

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