Monica Jahan Bose has been selected to perform in Art All Night (Nuit Blanche) DC. The performance will speak to climate change and its global impacts. The performance will be at the fountain in the center of Dupont Circle starting at 7 pm.

Performance assistant: Sree Sinha, Mayur Dance Academy

INUNDATION: Storytelling with Saris
a performance/installation by MONICA JAHAN BOSE

The multi-media performance INUNDATION speaks to climate change, using a 216-foot sari, water, bicycles, and video projections. Images are projected onto saris, the fountain, and the bodies of performers. Inspired by the two female and one male statues on the fountain, representing water, wind, and the cosmos, the movement of the performers and saris suggests storms, waves, and disruption of our ecosystem. The performance uses saris and video from STORYTELLING WITH SARIS, a long term collaboration with coastal women in Bangladesh who may be displaced by climate change. Audience members will be invited to join the performance and create a circle around the fountain with the sari, which creates a sheer screen. Performers will also bicycle around the circle carrying climate pledges to show their commitment to reducing use of fossil fuels.

INUNDATION explores connections between water and displacement, offering the hope of cleansing, rebirth, and change. “Inundation” refers to floods, immersion, and sea level rise and also to its cause, the overwhelming consumption by richer countries. In South Asian culture, water symbolizes cleansing, death and rebirth.