This spring, MoMA PS1 presents a retrospective of artist, activist, and musician Alanis Obomsawin (Abenaki, b. 1932), one of Canada’s most renowned filmmakers. The exhibition spans six decades of her multidisciplinary practice, bringing together a selection of films, sculptures, and sound, as well as rarely seen ephemera that sheds light on their production.

In the video Reserved (2006), Bani Abidi (Pakistani, b.1971) depicts a city at a standstill, its residents awaiting the arrival of an unspecified dignitary. Schoolchildren line a roadside with flags in hand; cars idle behind traffic barricades; an empty auditorium slowly fills; tense bureaucrats prepare for imminent political pageantry. Meanwhile, a motorcade winds through the streets.