LET THE RIVER LEAD YOU was a collaborative performance for University Night with Postcommodity as a part of the 57th Carnegie International that took place on November 1st 2018. With guidance of professors Dr. Cristóbal Martínez and Kade L. Twist of Postcommodity, three students from SFAI: April Martin, Sherwin Rio and myself and four Otis College of Art and Design students: Derek Prado, Laura Hendrix, Amy Friedberg and Ameera Daaood worked on a project for the Carnegie Museum of Art for one night open to college students from across the country.

The students created a generative sound procession that engaged a massive audience through the historic space. LET THE RIVER LEAD YOU was built of seemingly immaterial elements that connect individuals to space, community and generational memory. By making a Fluxus inspired event score, the procession was welcome to all onlookers, this participation brought a movement of sound throughout the museum starting and ending at the Hall of Sculpture.

The most formative meeting between the artists happened a week before the event. Days after that meeting a shooting occurred in Pittsburgh at the Tree of Life Synagogue, just a thirty minute walk from the Carnegie Museum of Art. Themes of honoring those we carry with us already encoded in the score, the piece became a way to move through grief and hold acknowledgement.

The piece’s instructions were to follow the metaphor of river, reflecting the site-specificness of Pittsburgh, a city of bridges, and how water has been a source of boundary, migration, culture and movement.