International Calligraphy Exhibition in Samarinda, East Kalimantan
By Moehammad Amar Ma’ruf, Career Diplomat of the Indonesian Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Since the International Calligraphy Exhibition (PIK) in Samarinda, East Kalimantan Province, Indonesia in 2024 opened a few days ago (8/9/2024), it has received good and touching attention from calligraphy activists from member countries of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation as well as other painters of the Eastern and Western worlds.
It is understood that holding the exhibition, which ultimately took place in Samarinda, East Kalimantan, has made the dreams of the residents of Jakarta Special Region and the surrounding areas have to share their willingness with other regions who also dream of hosting this event.
In several communications between the committee and the author, preparations for holding this activity faced quite worrying situations considering that this activity was usually carried out at the Jakarta International Islamic Center/JIC in North Jakarta, a place that actually has good facilities and infrastructure, but considering the large mosque that very artistic and phenomenal, located in the same environment as the place/venue usually used for this activity experienced a major fire and until now it has not been able to be built, so the organizing committee ultimately had to look for another area that was also good for holding this PIK activity.
Thank God, the committee finally worked together with the Regional Government of East Kalimantan to take a policy to continue holding it and chose the venue at the Samarinda City Hall. As a result, despite all its limitations, this exhibition activity was finally able to be held and combined honorably or combined with the 30th National Al-Quran Reading Competition Stage in 2024.
The implementation of PIK in 2024, which had to move from one location to another, has given the committee wisdom to pay more attention to regional diversity and participants from various countries who have expressed their interest. The participants were not only from countries that are members of the Organization for Islamic Cooperation (OIC) but also participants from other Western and Eastern countries.
Participants from member countries of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation/OIC as well as from around the world generally displayed very monumental and specific calligraphy products. It is recorded that there are a number of countries such as Indonesia, India, Malaysia, Kuwait, Iran, Pakistan, Thailand, Oman, Bangladesh, Lebanon, Afghanistan, United States, United Arab Emirates, Algeria, Morocco, Saudi Arabia, Netherlands, England, Egypt, China, Iraq , Tunisia, Nigeria, Yemen, Uzbekistan, Bosnia, Turkiye, Libya, Bahrain, Japan, Jordan, Canada, Russia, Tatarstan, North Macedonia and Palestine are present at the PIK 2024 exhibition.
The exhibition activity of this unusual work requires skill, high precision and clarity of thought which has good synergy between wishes/desires and movements of the senses of the mind in the form of neat strokes and has received admiration and appreciation from various intellectual circles who were present directly or indirectly.
This exhibition has helped make the visitor’s perspective on the letters of the Qur’an and Arabic more open and shows the heights of art of Islamic civilization and Muslim society as well as those who want to explore their own capacity for the specifics of Allah’s words in Arabic.
It is not an exaggeration when calligraphy activists compare with each other the features of calligraphy strokes which can be seen from the shapes and patterns, thus presenting us with the diversity of writing in a calligraphy stroke which displays the words of the Creator in the Qur’an.
To explore this meaning, the author tries to get a direct view from one of the Libyan female painters, Nesreen Naji Mohammad Naji-Tajora/Tripoli-Libya.
Mrs. Nesreen conveyed a message directly via WhatsApp by displaying the results of her scribbles in the form of calligraphic strokes of the words Allah SWT Kun Fa Yakun. These etchings try to depict the Creator’s will for something, including the organization of this exhibition it will happen. This Libyan painter implicitly conveys her admiration for the cultural diversity in Indonesia as an archipelagic country with a Muslim-majority population that is actually far from the area where the teachings of the Qur’an were revealed, namely in the Arabian peninsula, but is able to maintain a legacy of Islamic civilization. According to her this is the will of the Creator, so this exhibition happened. For this reason, the person concerned submits her outline as stated below:
Other appreciation also came from the Libyan female painter, Sarah Meskawi, who expressed her high appreciation to her Indonesian brothers and also to the participants both from Indonesia and from OIC member countries and other western countries.
We hope that the positive impact of this exhibition activity will expand and provide space for activists and observers as well as relevant stakeholders, including the organizers of this activity, to jointly strengthen the message of peace and cooperation for world prosperity. Wallahuálam bi showab. (T/RE1/P2)
Mi’raj News Agency (MINA)
