Wendelien van Oldenburgh: The Past is Never Dead

Focusing on the two works featured in Wendelien van Oldenburg’s first solo exhibition in Canada, at A Space, Toronto - Instruction and Après - the essay discusses the Dutch artist’s collaborative and inter-textual approach to film making. While considering the two films' examination of institutional frameworks that curtail collective and personal expression and agency, the essay shows how the films also suggest the possibilities for resistance and critique when people push back against punitive conditions. The text highlights van Oldenburg’s debt to the experimental political practices of film maker Peter Watkin and theatre director Augusto Boal, arguing that her works stimulates the critical faculties and potential for change in subjects and viewers alike.