Upcoming events

There Must Be Other Names For The River will be performed live at the Marlene Nathan Meyerson Auditorium at SITE Santa Fe. Six singers represent six points along the river — Monica Demarco (headwaters), Ryan Dennison (Albuquerque area), Kenneth Cornell (Elephant Butte), Antonia Montoya (Juárez / El Paso), Mauro Woody (Big Bend), Marya Errin Jones (the mouth). Carlos Santistevan (High Mayhem) will perform the ecosystem response to the Headwaters score on standup bass to open the show.

Free, no RSVP required.

More info

There Must Be Other Names For The River is shown at SITE Santa Fe as a mural and outdoor sound installation along the walkway outside the museum as part of the group exhibition Going With The Flow: Art, Actions and Western Waters curated by Brandee Caoba and Lucy Lippard. Entry to the museum is free. Find more information at sitesantafe.org

Past Events

On Friday, March 26th, 2021 at 4:00 PM, artists Marisa Demarco, Dylan McLaughlin, and Jessica Zeglin will be joined by Arif Khan, Director of the UNM Art Museum, and Traci Quinn, former Curator of Education & Public Programs, to discuss the development, goals and artistic process of There Must Be Other Names For The River. The virtual conversation, held on Zoom, is free and open to all. Registration is required, please visit https://unm.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_IZM-X6V2S522cdRcyE_pbg

There Must Be Other Names For The River is a web-based sound installation and virtual community space engaging the history, present, and potential futures of the Rio Grande. This project utilizes digital technology to artistically explore our relationship with the source of life in this region. In this time of physical distancing, There Must Be Other Names for the River reminds us that the river we call the Rio Grande connects us to neighbors and ecosystems, both seen and unseen.

516 ARTS, the National Hispanic Cultural Center, and UNM Art & Ecology Program artists Marisa Demarco, Dylan McLaughlin, and Jessica Zeglin present There Must Be Other Names for the River. This composition for six singers is based on streamflow data from the river known today as the Rio Grande. Each singer channels the river, representing a point where flows were observed and recorded. Arranged in the shape of the water body within the performance space, the singers’ voices change in intensity with the flows and distort over time as human interference is felt along the length of the river. After embodying past decades, the singers project possible futures for the voice of the river and the bodies through which its waters flow. The artists say, “The Rio Grande is itself a living being who has experiences over time including birth, growth, and possibly death…. By listening and embodying, can we change our relationships with the river and see beyond its uses to humans? Can we hear the river as more than a resource?” The original sound art performance is presented in conjunction with Species in Peril Along the Rio Grande, an exhibition currently on view at 516 ARTS.

Premiere performance of There Must Be Other Names for the River. As part of Nina Elder’s Deep Time Lab and Arts Unexpected at the University of New Mexico.

Performers: Monica Demarco, Ryan Dennison, Kenneth Cornell, Antonia Montoya, Mauro Woody, and Jessica Chao.