Evidence: Soundwalk Collective & Patti Smith

Between 2017 and 2020, Stephan Crasneanscki and Patti Smith collaborated on the creation of Perfect Vision: a triptych of albums which take their inspiration from the writings of three emblematic French poets: Antonin Artaud, Arthur Rimbaud and René Daumal. Central to the work was the poets’ necessity to travel to different lands to acquire a new vision and perspective on themselves and their art. Recorded in the Sierra Tarahumara of Mexico, the Abyssinian valley of Ethiopia, and the Himalayan Summit of India respectively, the core idea is that each landscape holds sleeping memories that are the witness of human passage.

Recorded in the Sierra Tarahumara of Mexico, the Abyssinian valley of Ethiopia, and the Himalayan Summit of India respectively, the core idea is that each landscape holds sleeping memories that are the witness of human passage. Produced with Russell Elevado, Leonardo Heiblum, Nicolas Becker and Soundwalk Collective’s Simone Merli, each album retraces the poets’ footsteps, channelled through on-location recorded soundscapes and musicalities, in the search of hidden, earthy sounds that hold embedded existence, with Patti Smith revisiting the words that have been inspired by the landscapes. A sound and visual montage that traverses the works of Rimbaud, Artaud and Daumal in their voyage to elsewhere. Stimulated by these metaphysical journeys, the musical and sound composition of Perfect Vision is the starting point for this new site-specific and multidisciplinary exhibition that Soundwalk Collective and Patti Smith have conceived.

Evidence is a poetic and immersive quest, an ode to a world without borders, a contemporary reflection on the infinite and the universal, a spiritual quest for oneness as a living and life-giving presence. The physical, sound and visual journeys of the Soundwalk Collective enter into an infinite conversation with the poetic trajectories of Patti Smith, to create a new vision and a new language during this investigation. The exhibition space presents sound, film, abstract imagery, objects and found art collected from their travels, leading the visitor towards a large investigative installation that juxtaposes photography, text and original artwork by Patti Smith, from both her personal collections as well as those of Mnam and MoMA, as evidence of the existence of these poets and their inspiration, offering a true immersion in their thought and art.

For further information see Evidence: Soundwalk Collective & Patti Smith - MAC/CCB - Museum of Contemporary Art, Lisbon