Riar Rizaldi’s artistic practice is inextricably linked to the history, culture and landscape of his native Indonesia. It questions the relationships between capital, technology and extractivism, as well as the ecological and social consequences in dynamics of power.

Using an essayistic language, often operating at the border between documentary and fiction, Rizaldi’s films and installations address the past, present and future of Indonesia. Following centuries of subjugation by the Dutch colonial empire and subsequent bloodthirsty regimes, Indonesia is today experiencing economic growth, in large part due to extraction of its abundant natural resources. But who benefits from this growth, and at what cost?

Rizaldi employs a range of aesthetic approaches — desktop cinema, interviews, mysterious sonic compositions and archive footage among them — to create speculative fictions, counterposing the hidden power of indigenous ancestry with new dystopias where citizens have become exponentially oppressed by technology.

Batalha presents Rizaldi’s short films alongside a performance-essay on the history of Indonesian horror films as propaganda.