expressing the inexpressible

On May 14, 2024, at the Institut du Monde Arabe in Paris, DAAJI was interviewed by GUILA CLARA KESSOUS, the UNESCO Artist for Peace, and Ambassador for Peace of the Universal Circle of Ambassadors of Peace (Geneva) about art.

- LAKSHMI GADDAM

Art is a way to express your deepest feelings

Q: What is your definition of art?

It’s very difficult to define, but I would say to make the inexpressible expressible through visual graphics.

For example, when we talk philosophically about animal man becoming human, and humans becoming humane, and the humane quality advancing to become divine or angelic, how can you express that visually? Someone else is in love and dancing away with songs that express their inner state, which otherwise would be difficult to put on paper. So art is a way to express your deepest feelings, which cannot otherwise be expressed in words. When words fail, art can help us to a certain extent. But after some level, it’s difficult; for example, how can you express states beyond bliss through art?

Q: So it’s a way to connect the intangible with the tangible.

Yes.

Q: Can art help to connect with the power of oneself and the power of others, as in meditation?

For the artist, art can become a creative thing for centering oneself. Sportspeople get absorbed in playing tennis or badminton or football, and are so happy because they are in the flow.

A similar thing happens to a flautist or a violinist or an artist.

And meditation is also a kind of a flow, but it is going inward.

Artistic expression presents things outward. They are two different directions.

I can go inward to express something outward, to a certain extent. Art can be a powerful tool, but it cannot match the state of meditation because the directions are different. In meditation, we are connected at the deepest level.

If we join hands and make a big circle, we are connected through our hands, not through our hearts.

Meditation takes us in, purifies the heart, and connects the hearts of individuals. This is my understanding so far.