Power and other things

The focus of this publication and accompanying exhibition is Indonesia ; a country for which the term "imagined community" was invented. The archipelago is of such scale and diversity that it is surpasses any generalisation. The texts and artistic projects here capture the entanglements between those differences as well as with wider European and Asian histories, while always looking to how the past is shaped by the present. The texts include Walter Mignolo's critical essay on decoloniality and two histories of Indonesian art by Bambang Bujono and Aminudin TH Siregar in relation to colonial and post-colonial conditions. The book serves as an important introduction to modern and contemporary art in and about Indonesia, and its implications beyond the region.