A video document of Karthik Pandian’s Off-Site-project, IN THE RIVER, performed live in St. Paul on April 23, 2022.

Ensemble: Sam Aros Mitchell (Texas Band of Yaqui Indians), Leila Awadallah, Lakota “Hokie” Clairmont (Hochunk / Lakota), Thomas Draskovic-Chetan Ohitika (Standing Rock Lakota), Cameron Downey, Douglas R. Ewart, Lela Pierce, Mike Forcia (Bad River Anishinaabe), Karthik Pandian, Jonathon Rosemond, Akičita Šuŋka-Wakaŋ Ska (Standing Rock Lakota), Ta Pejuta Wicahpi Win (Hunkpati Dakota Oyate)
Camera: Akičita Šuŋka-Wakaŋ Ska, Xiaolu Weng, Cameron Downey, Niko Georgiades, Karthik Pandian
Editing: Robby MacBain, Chelsea Knight, Karthik Pandian
Sound mixing: Robby MacBain

IN THE RIVER is a public performance by artist Karthik Pandian, commissioned by Midway Contemporary Art for its Off-Site program. Produced in collaboration with Mike Forcia and an ensemble of Twin Cities-based musicians, dancers, media workers, and activists, IN THE RIVER braids Indigenous prophecy, Black music, and stories of survival to challenge the colonial monument’s claim on space and time.

Support for IN THE RIVER generously provided by Creative Capital, The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, The National Endowment for the Arts, Now + There, In Progress, The Film Study Center at Harvard University, and is made possible by the voters of Minnesota through a Minnesota State Arts Board grant, thanks to a legislative appropriation from the arts and cultural heritage fund.