Public art asserts that rather than functioning solely on an individual, isolated level, memory is codependent and co-constructive. People usually acquire ideas through the collective memory of their society. It is only as part of a group that one can recall, recognize and localize memories. This is exemplified by how communities create places and rituals to serve as permanent and perceptible markers of what is important to their cultures. Inherent to Díaz Morales’s visual language is a deep-seated questioning of the documentary genre’s ability to reproduce reality: a fluid transition between the perception and experience contra factuality opens the door to way of viewing the film that lets the audience take in its political message while also inspiring alternative readings of history.

In Smashing Monuments (2022), Díaz Morales follows five members of the Indonesian art collective ruangrupa as they engage in conversation with monuments around the city of Jakarta. The half-improvised and intimate dialogues reflect several of the values which are also at the core of the collective’s practice: nonkrong (hanging out), humor, improvisation, solidarity, friendship, and generosity are some of the elements driving the script. Witnessing these personal and often funny encounters, the audience learns not only of the five chosen monuments, but of Indonesia’s history, its struggle for independence from the Dutch, and the ruangrupa members’ personal stories having grown up as young citizens of the new republic.

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