Instruction
Instruction interrogates the agency of the individual in conditions of war. The work revolves around an unresolved episode of military history: the Dutch intervention in Indonesia’s struggle for independence in 1947-49. Van Oldenborgh asked a group of cadets from the Royal Netherlands Military Academy to read out and discuss a script composed of documents related to the conflict. Performing the script becomes a means to enact diverging historical subject positions, as well as to negotiate positions and responsibilities in the present.
Storyline
Instruction interrogates the agency of the individual in conditions of war. The work revolves around an unresolved episode of military history: the Dutch intervention in Indonesia’s struggle for independence in 1947-49. Van Oldenborgh asked a group of cadets from the Royal Netherlands Military Academy to read out and discuss a script composed of documents related to the conflict. Performing the script becomes a means to enact diverging historical subject positions, as well as to negotiate positions and responsibilities in the present.