Cian Dayrit characterizes his installation as an anti-monument to the power of (in)visibility. When conflict breaks out in some parts of the world, people rush to protect their monuments with sandbags. It’s a way to shield history from destruction. We’ve seen this happen in places like Europe during the World Wars and, more recently, in Ukraine. But here in the Philippines, the threat is different.

Here, it’s not foreign bombs, but the state’s own military actions, often targeting rural areas under the pretense of “counter-insurgency.” These bombings, happening far from the eyes of the media, scar the land—our rice fields and ancestral territories—where the memories of the people are rooted.

Unlike in Europe, where monuments can be shielded with sandbags, the people here don’t have that privilege. Their history isn’t held in statues or buildings; it lives in the land they cultivate, the forests they protect, and the trees that bear witness to generations of struggle and resilience. If trees could talk, they would tell stories of these lands—of the violence they’ve seen, and the strength of the people who have endured it.

This sculpture ties the fate of the people to the environment. The sacks, usually filled with rice to nourish, are here filled with concrete—a stark symbol of how violence turns resources meant for life into instruments of survival. It challenges us to think about the silent destruction of both people and nature, reminding us that the scars on the land mirror the scars on the people.

In this conversation between the past and present, between monuments and nature, the work invites us to imagine what the land, the trees, and the people would say if given a voice. It calls for connection and solidarity, asking us to listen to the whispers of the earth and its people, all under threat but still standing tall.

In the coming months, Tumba-Tumba and CANVAS will interact with Cian’s The Anti-Monument by installing human rights-related words from all over the world made from brass, to introduce visitors, especially children, to these universal, if sometimes untranslatable, words and concepts.