"Meet the Rivers" is a live performance that provides a platform for the rivers around the world to have a voice at the UN 2023 Water Decade Conference in New York City. The artistic conversation invites the audience to listen to the rivers speaking about their experiences regarding spatial boundaries (geographical, cultural, political), temporal boundaries (civilisation, climate change), as well as the history of modernisation: industrialisation, pollution, loss of biodiversity, through the perspective of a river itself.
About The Event
Meet the Rivers is an official side event of the UN2023 Water Decade Conference which focuses on transboundary fresh water. The event will integrate storytelling, experimental group process, live performance, and aesthetic-sonic rendering to generate authentic affect and meaning for water in the audience, a scenario that invites the rivers — the fresh water that gives birth to civilisation and humanity — from all around the world to meet in the collective space of the oceans. On one hand, the performance provides an opportunity to explore alternative narratives about rivers, particularly in the form of worldly mythology, which provides the sense of identity and cultural belonging to individuals from different backgrounds. On the other hand, the project would communicate spatial boundaries (geographical, cultural, political), temporal boundaries (civilisation, climate change), as well as the history of modernisation: industrialisation, pollution, loss of biodiversity, through the perspective of a river.
