PARIS.- Between 2019 and 2021, 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. 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 search of hidden, earthy sounds that hold embedded existence, with Patti Smith revisiting the poets’ words that have been inspired by the landscapes. The result is 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 for the Centre Pompidou.

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 Soundwalk Collective enter into a conversation with the poetic trajectories of Patti Smith, to create a new vision and language. 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 Musée national d’art moderne and MoMA, as an evidence of the existence of these poets and their inspiration, offering a true immersion in their thought and art.

Curators
Chloé Siganos,head of performing arts department and Jean-Max Colard,head of talk program department, culture and creation department

Patti Smith, born in Chicago and raised in South Jersey, migrated to New York City in 1967.




Her extensive achievements as a performer, author, recording and visual artist is acknowledged worldwide. Released in 1975, Smith’s first recording, Horses, was inducted into the National Recording Registry at the Library of Congress in 2010 by the National Recording Preservation Board. Her subsequent albums include Radio Ethiopia, Easter, which included Because the Night, cowritten with Bruce Springsteen, Wave, Dream of Life, which included People Have the Power cowritten with her late husband Fred Sonic Smith, Gone Again, Peace and Noise, Gung Ho, Trampin’, Land, Twelve, Banga, and Outside Society. She is a four-time Grammy® nominee and a Golden Globe nominee for the song Mercy Is cowritten with Lenny Kay for the film Noah. Steven Sebring’s 2008 documentary, Patti Smith: Dream of Life, received an Emmy nomination.

Patti Smith was awarded the prestigious 2010 National Book Award for her bestselling memoir, Just Kids, chronicling her deep friendship with photographer Robert Mapplethorpe and the evolution of their work. Her books include Witt, Babel, Woolgathering, The Coral Sea, Auguries of Innocence, Collected Lyrics, M Train, Devotion, and Year of the Monkey.

Smith holds the honor of “Commandeur des Arts et des Lettres” from the French Ministry of Culture. In 2007 she was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. She was honored by ASCAP with the Founders Award in 2010, representing lifetime achievement, and was the recipient of Sweden’s 2011 Polar Award, an international acknowledgement for significant achievements in music. In 2013, Smith received the Katharine Hepburn Medal from Bryn Mawr College, recognizing women whose contributions embody the drive and work ethic of the celebrated actress. In 2014, Barnard College Board of Trustees presented Patti Smith with their Medal of Distinction. In 2016, she was awarded the Burke Medal for Outstanding Contribution to the Arts in Trinity College, Dublin.

Smith’s photographs, drawings, and installations have been exhibited in galleries and museums worldwide. Coupled with her photography exhibit Higher Learning, Smith received the Laurea Magistrate causa from Parma, Italy, and an honorary doctorate in Euro-American Literature from Padova University.

Her renowned band includes guitarist and author Lenny Kaye, who she has collaborated with since 1971, drummer Jay Dee Daugherty since 1975, Tony Shanahan on bass and keyboards, since 1996, and her son, guitarist Jackson Smith, for over a decade.

At present Smith writes, performs, lending support for human-rights issues and environmental groups, primarily Pathway to Paris, a nonprofit organization co-founded by her daughter, Jesse Paris Smith, offering tangible solutions for combatting climate change. In May 2020, she received the PEN Literary Service Award, and an honorary Doctorate from Columbia University.

May 21, 2022, she received the French Legion of Honor for her life’s work.