CORRESPONDENCES · 2023–TOURING · Live AV show
CORRESPONDENCES is an ever-evolving project between Soundwalk Collective and Patti Smith. Spanning over 10 years, it traverses a wealth of geographies and their natural environments, where the artists have uncovered sonic steps left by poets, filmmakers, revolutionaries and impact of climate change.
Initially composed as long travelling shots, soundtracks to an invisible movie, Soundwalk Collective’s founder, Stephan Crasneanscki, brought these recordings to Patti Smith, giving her new landscapes to channel her poetic vision. This ongoing resonance between the artists – which started during a chance encounter on a plane – has been shaped by their correspondences: ongoing conversations with the intention of reflecting on life and nature.
For CORRESPONDENCES, their collaboration focuses on eight unique pieces that revert the relationship of sound to image. Sound came first, and only then would imagery be found to tell the music’s story, visually edited to each soundtrack. From a collaboration with TBA21-Academy exploring the destructive impact of seismic airguns and human interventions in the oceans, to the resilience of Nature in the aftermath of the Chernobyl disaster, to the decentralized societies envisioned by Peter Kropotkin, to the wastelands of Pasolini’s last night: the pieces presented become thought-provoking audiovisual journeys.
Featuring live films and director’s cuts, ‘Correspondences’ is performed by Soundwalk Collective’s Stephan Crasneanscki and Simone Merli, Patti Smith, Diego Espinosa Cruz Gonzalez, Lucy Railton, Nicolas Becker and Leonardo Heiblum. Live visuals and image manipulation by Pedro Maia.
Rewire Festival – Parcifal Werkman / Pieter Kers
LIVE SHOWS ··· more to be announced ···
2025/05 Opera Palace, New National Theatre, Tokyo JP
2025/05 ROHM Theatre Kyoto, Kyoto JP
2025/03 Bottega Venetta, Milan IT
2025/01 Cultura Artística, São Paulo BR
2025/01 Teatro Opera , Buenos Aires AR
2025/01 Coliseo, Santiago Chile CL
2025/01 Teatro Metropolitano, Medellin CO
2024/05 BAM, New York US
2024/03 Teatro Circo. Braga PT
2024/03 CCB, Lisbon PT
2024/03 Onassis, Athens GR
2024/03 Mutek MX, Mexico City MX
2024/02 Guadalajara MX
2023/10 Rustaveli National Theatre, Tbilisi GE
2023/07 Teatro Colón Bogotá, Bogota CO
2023/04 Volksbrune, Berlin DE
2023/04 Rewire Festival, The Hague NL
Opera Palace, New National Theatre, Tokyo JP – MODE – Yuichiro-Noda
CORRESPONDENCES · EXHBITIONS
Lead video editor and technical producer for a site-specific immersive installation. Responsible for multiscreen editing, projection mapping, and color grading of a 111-minute multi-channel installation.
··· more to be announced ···
2025/10 Lisbon Architecture Triennale, Lisbon PT
2025/04 Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo (MOT), Tokyo JP
2025/04 PIKNIC,Seoul KR
2025/01 Kurimanzutto, New York US
Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo (MOT), Tokyo JP – Photos by Kei Murata / MODE
Volksbühne Berlin – Frankie Casillo
MUTEK Mexico City – Davidd Barajas / Guadalajara – Nación Imago
EVIDENCE
2022 · Live AV show and image manipulation
Centre Pompidou brought together Patti Smith, Stephan Crasneanscki and Simone Merli from Soundwalk Collective, for a unique live performance on 22 October 2022 as part of their exhibition ““Evidence”.
“Evidence” is an audio and visual montage that traverses the work of Arthur Rimbaud, Antonin Artaud and René Daumal in their journeys to new horizons. Stimulated by these metaphysical voyages, the musical and sound composition of Perfect Vision is the starting point for this new multidisciplinary exhibition, collectively designed by Soundwalk Collective and Patti Smith for the Centre Pompidou.
PERFECT VISION by Soundwalk Collective & Patti Smith — with Nicolas Becker, Diego Espinosa, Oriana Gidi and Leonardo Heiblum — Sitar Roopa Panesar — live visuals and image manipulation Pedro Maia
LIVE 22.10.2022, Centre Pompidou, Paris – France
“Evidence” is a poetic, immersive journey, an ode to a world without borders, a contemporary reflection on the infinite and universal, a spiritual quest for unity as a living and life-giving presence. The physical, sound and visual voyages of Soundwalk Collective enter into infinite dialogue with the poetic trajectories of American musician and poet Patti Smith, creating a new vision and language through this exploration. Between audio, films, abstract images, objects and creations collected throughout their travels, this exhibition guides the public through a vast exploratory installation that juxtaposes photos, texts and original works by Patti Smith, from her personal collections and the Musée National d’Art Moderne and MoMA collections. As a testimony to the existence of these poets and their inspiration, it offers true immersion into their spirit and art.
Between 2019 and 2021, Stephan Crasneanscki and Patti Smith worked together to create Perfect Vision, a triptych of albums that draw inspiration from the texts of three iconic French poets: Antonin Artaud, Arthur Rimbaud and René Daumal. At the heart of the work is the necessity for these poets to travel to different horizons, to discover a new vision and perspective of themselves and their art. Recorded respectively in the Sierra Tarahumara in Mexico, the Abyssinian Highlands in Ethiopia and the peaks of the Himalayas in India, these albums are based on the idea that each landscape holds sleeping memories, testimonies to the passage of humans. Produced in collaboration with Grammy award winner Russell Elevado, Leonardo Heiblum, and Simone Merli, member of Soundwalk Collective, each album retraces the footsteps of poets, leading us through sound and musical landscapes, revisited by the incantatory voice of Patti Smith – Centre Pompidou
Exhibition includes several images manipulated by Pedro Maia