Unearthing the Past and Re-imagining the Present Contemporary Art and Muslim Politics in a Post-9/11 world

Contemporary Indonesian art shows how visual culture is a site of (Muslim) politics, creativity, contestation, and conflict, a site where issues associated with Islam are mobilized to come to terms with the present state of the world. But how are aesthetics mobilized as a way of negotiating and contesting political, cultural, and historical circumstances? This chapter explores this question by conducting an analysis of two contemporary Indonesian art works: Membuat Obama dan Perdamaian yang dibuat-buat (2009) by Wilman Syanur and 11 June 2002 (2003) by Arahmaiani. Through their aesthetics the works evoke fragments from the past to question the construct of the present. This chapter shows how these aesthetic strategies form the base of a (Muslim) politics.