Soundwalk Collective is the contemporary sonic arts platform of founder and artist Stephan Crasneanscki and producer Simone Merli. Working with a rotating constellation of artists and musicians, they develop site- and context-specific sound projects through which to examine conceptual, literary or artistic themes.
Evolving along multi-disciplinary lines, Soundwalk Collective has cultivated long-term creative collaborations with musician Patti Smith, late director Jean-Luc Goddard, photographer Nan Goldin, choreographer Sasha Waltz, and actress and singer Charlotte Gainsbourg, among others. In doing so, their practice engages in the narrative potential of sound across mediums such as art installations, dance, music and film.
A unique artistic approach to sound ties together the different forms in which Soundwalk Collective work. Whether in original composition or the use of archival recordings, they treat sound as material that is both tactile and poetic. This allows them to create layered narratives that address ideas of memory, time, love and loss.
Their latest original score for ‘All The Beauty and the Bloodshed’ (dir. Laura Poitras) won the Golden Lion at the 2022 Venice Film Festival. In 2024, they are showing ‘Correspondences’, a new exhibition and performance with Patti Smith at the Onassis Foundation in Athens, the BAM in New York, and the MAMM Museum of Contemporary Art in Medellin, that weaves an audio-visual journey through literature, art, philosophy and the current state of our planet in reaction to the impact of climate change.
Soundwalk Collective have performed and exhibited at a diverse range of arts and music institutions, such as BAM, CCB Lisbon, Centre Pompidou, CTM Festival, documenta, KW Institute of Contemporary Art, Louvre Abu Dhabi, Manifesta, Mobile Art Pavillion by Zaha Hadid, New Museum, Reethaus, TPMM Tbilisi and Volksbühne Berlin.
Musician, singer, poet, artist, and performer, Patti Smith made her debut as a musician in 1975 with the album Horses, and has since released ten more, both as a solo artist and with her eponymous bands. In 2010, the French Minister of Culture honored her with the title of Commander of the Order of Arts and Letters. Her memoir Just Kids—dedicated to the years spent with her friend and collaborator Robert Mapplethorpe—won the National Book Award for Nonfiction in 2010. In Italy, in addition to Just Kids, she has published Mar dei Coralli (1996), I tessitori di sogni (2013), M Train (2016), Devotion (2018), L’anno della scimmia (2020), and Book of Days (2023). In 2002, the Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh held her first solo exhibition, and in 2008, the Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain in Paris organized a retrospective show, presenting, alongside her poetic work, sketches, photographs, and films. Smith has long supported the Tibetan cause through concerts and by backing the Dalai Lama’s efforts.
Soundwalk Collective and Patti Smith have collaborated since 2013. Together, they have held concerts, organized exhibitions, and released albums, working with artists such as Mulatu Astatke, Tenzin Choegyal, Brian Eno, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Philip Glass, Jim Jarmusch, Laraaji, Lucy Railton, Anoushka Shankar, Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith, and the Sufi Group of Sheikh Ibrahim.
