Living with the stigma of a ‘failed state’ Pakistan’s volatile political conditions, collapse of law and order, economic chaos, increasing militancy and alarming power crunch have driven the average citizen to the verge of despair. When individuals and families are continuously harassed by strife, violence and death; and when job security, personal safety, salaries, and the future in general is jeopardised, is the art simply a luxury to return to, once the crisis has passed?

No. In times of crisis, the arts bear witness. When artists engage with their political and social contexts, their critical role in terms of social conscience, moral critique, and collective action becomes visible.

They provide an essential outlet for the range of heightened emotions we feel: confusion, frustration, anxiety and hopelessness. Most importantly, they remind us of life’s joys and of the strength and resilience of the human spirit.

Three art personalities share their individual viewpoints when they were asked to answer the following question:

What is the role of (visual) art in a time of crisis—the kind we are witnessing today in Pakistan? Is the art fraternity fulfilling that role?

Bani Abidi—video artist currently Artist in Residence DAAD Berliner Kunstler Programme, Berlin.

“To begin with, it is important to acknowledge that visual art does not play a substantial or immediate role in the public imagination in Pakistan. Artists, however, are a hopeful element of the human society and can often enthrall audiences with their little tricks and profound gestures, even if only a few are watching. An artist represents the ability in people to think and act creatively, critically, poetically and if we are lucky, intelligently. A good artist chews and mulls over experiences and images only to spew them out transformed, edited and stitched together to provide a new glimpse into an apparently familiar world.

“The main responsibility of artists in Pakistan at a time like this should be to engage with all that is going on around us (if one chooses to do so) with extreme particularity. The conversations about the situation in Pakistan are one of the noisiest in local and world media. Definitions of critical, liberal or conservative thought are predetermined and readily consumed by everyone. It is important that at such a time, we put on our 3-D glasses, glide over mainstream thought and analysis, wade through the messy swamp of ordinary life and come out on the other side, maybe even grasping onto something we did not necessarily go out looking for. We need to find and string together our own stories, images and moments, replete with references and experiences that we share amongst ourselves.

“For me the role of the artist is to feed into and enhance the shared consciousness of a group of people, and to up the ante with every gesture.”

Roohi Ahmed—visual artist, associate professor IVSSA, currently pursuing MFA at COFA, UNSW, Sydney, Australia.

“The role of art, in my opinion, is very similar to that of poetry or meaningful prose, but visual artists are armed with a more effective tool of image-making which crosses over the bounds of written and spoken language, and makes the viewer think beyond the obvious and ignites some response or action beyond the individual’s normal call of duty, which can contribute towards creating a ripple effect within the society.

“Pakistani artists come from different strata of our society and are very much part of the larger collective. I don’t see them as isolated ‘enlightened’ beings. And like any other ‘educated/sensitive’ segment of our society, their take on the current situation is as individual as artists’ sensibilities. I would say that they have been responding continuously—either because it is unavoidable or habitual or out of a sense of cultural duty or simply to document or exploit. But quite a few of them have been actively responding and some choose not to, which is a response in itself.

“However, by and large, art has not been created for the masses and even if a few artists’ work might have the potential of being effective, its viewership is confined to galleries, and galleries are restricted to ‘certain’ areas and hence its sphere becomes extremely limited even within the urban context.”

Hammad Nasr—director, curator Green Cardamom, London.

“To quote the French Fluxus artist Robert Filliou, ‘Art is that which makes life more interesting than art.’ Taking this at a personal level for me, art is a privileged space that catalyses (and possibly hosts) serious reflection on what it means to be alive today. In a Pakistani context that, of course, means reflection on the forces we find at work to create what you have called a ‘time of crisis’ (but can you pinpoint a period in our brief history which was not a time of crisis?). For me this does not mean that we start judging art for its ability to create social change.

“Didacticism and sloganeering has seldom made for good art. But what we can expect is the creation of a space that offers us a respite from the everyday tyranny. And I see plenty of examples of artists from Pakistan offering us that.

“From Imran Qureshi’s project at this year’s Sharjah Biennial that evoked bloodshed to Hamra Abbas’s project at the last one that placed us face-to-face with 99 faces of children from madrassas; from Bani Abidi’s mournful portraits of Karachi’s minority citizens claiming public space at Iftar time, to Ayesha Jatoi’s photographic record of her performance using a decommissioned Mig fighter from the 1971 Bangladesh war as a clothesline for her red clothes. These (and many others) are works which implicate us in the mess of our times and force us to consider our own position. And for that we should be grateful.

“So in the current situation, I don’t think that a few artists’ individual attempts, no matter how effective, are going to make a dent as there has to be a cohesive attempt at doing so. Like the rest of our society the art fraternity also needs to have that sense of urgency and join hands with other factions of our society to make a difference, it can’t remain isolated.”