Nowadays the world is struggling for prime materials and energies, individuals struggling with connecting with each other and societies struggling with making sense of constantly shifting reality around them. We have seen it in the past and we see it in the present, that as we lose fundamental human connection and shared respect for each other, we see wars, conflicts, exploitation of large scale. And few systems, like, government, corporations and institutions work towards accumulating more power and energies for themselves, continuing to maintain the gaps between the rich and the poor, east and west, body and mind, white and black, human and nature and many more such divisions.

Since the beginning of our civilization, stories have helped us form deep relationships with everything around us from fellow humans to nature to systems. Stories have taken forms of mythology, folklore, legends, personal narratives, postmodern stories transmitted through mediums ranging from oral traditions to digital spaces.

At this moment we start a multimedia collaboration among east and west in which we imagine and re-image new & existing tales which creates a fantastical and folk experience. The beauty of the folk experience is that it reignites the fundamental human desire of collectivity and imaginative world of possibilities. The folk world of coexistence, allows many ways of looking at creation, being and interactions. They help us to navigate through the personal, philosophical & political and supports love for each other.

We, as collective, sit with the public and in an intimate way explore the 3 different fluid mediums. We pick up stories from our pot which is as diverse as cultures and unites us through our fundamental human nature. A transformative drawing form meets rustic music meets organically growing storytelling. An experience of words, songs and colors brings the folk in us to life. We believe that folktales connect different countries and allow us to feel connected to each other.

Next To The River was developed during the Artist residency for Tent: School of Performative Practice held in Zurich supported by Gessneralle and Shedhalle. It is a collaboration between a storyteller and actor (Akhshay Gandhi) , a dancer, singer and actor (Raunak Khan) and a painter and filmmaker (Giulia Savorani).