River
of Many Sides
is an interactive,
multimedia performance which addresses issues of violence and its effects.
Innovative computer media combine with live performance and audience interaction to create a powerful and moving work. Some audience members contributed these comments:
"It was a pleasure to have experienced the performance and the perfect conclusion to such intensive collaborative work. It is inspiring (and rare) to see this type of synergy between poesis, social content, and various time-based-media (video / VRML / sound & performance)."
"Beyond its engaging interactive elements, the most stunning feature of the work was the projected imagery. Images on the four screens seemed to move in harmony throughout the work. Instead of merely illustrating the actors' actions, the visual texts often complicated and deepened their meaning. The imagery was also immersive, enveloping the entire stage space and drawing the audience visually into the work."
“I want to thank you for one of the best evenings of my life--the rare opportunity to experience one of the shining moments of reconciliation in history. I am awed, grateful and thrilled.”
In June of 2003, five artists embarked on a journey of collaboration and understanding that began with travels to one another's countries and that culminated in the performance: River of Many Sides. Each of the artists has profound personal and cultural associations to our countries' intertwined histories.
River of Many Sides began with the idea that rivers constitute boundaries but also traverse them. In 2001 on a trip to Austria, two of the artists spoke to a resident of Linz, on the Danube, who described seeing bodies floating downstream from the Bosnian conflict a few years earlier. We are all downstream from somewhere, and upstream from somewhere else, and our lives and the consequences of our actions bind us intimately to one another. This idea proved a fruitful metaphor as a point of departure for this collaboration, which takes the form of a journey from agrarian life, through conflict, to rebuilding; a journey through time that tells the story of our countries' relationship.
Act I opens with the birth of the day, and depicts the joys and struggles of people living close to the land.
Act II shows the cataclysmic effects of violence and war.
Act III engages the act of reconstruction and renewal, as well as building a memorial for those who have suffered and died.
This hour long performance draws the audience into a journey that culminates in an honoring of the past and a hope for the future, a hope that in these times is especially important.
Images from the documentation of the event in June, 04
Video documentation of the Chicago performances