Silk River Souvenir Programme

UK 15 th - 24 th September
India 6 th - 16 th December
We invite you to join us for the culmination of Silk River. This ambitious
project explores the unique relationship between London and Kolkata
through artistic exchange between communities along the Thames
Estuary and India’s Hooghly River.
A team of artists, led by Kinetika’s director, Ali Pretty, has been working
with communities along the way to devise a series of unique walking
events that will reveal the stories of those who live and work along both
rivers and the connections they have with each other.
Each community has created a 6m hand-painted silk scroll that is a visual
narrative of their walk. Every day a core group will welcome two new
scrolls, one from the River Thames community and one from the Indian
partner location, to be carried in September by participants from Royal
Botanic Gardens, Kew to Southend where there will be a finale moment
as we walk all twenty to the end of the mile-long pier. The journey
continues in India, by boat and by foot we explore the river bank from
Murshidabad to Batanagar completing the project in a finale event in
central Kolkata.
The walks will be full of surprises, you can join for a morning, an afternoon,
one, ten or twenty days and every day we will reveal more stories
online, so you can experience and interact with us wherever you are.