CINEMA OF INCLUSIVITY, SCREENINGS AND WORKSHOPS: SOUNDWALK COLLECTIVE & PATTI SMITH, CORRESPONDENCES

Isola Edipo, Giornate degli Autori, and the Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain join forces again this year for the section “Cinema of Inclusivity: Screenings and Workshops”, which features Soundwalk Collective & Patti Smith, with Correspondences.
Isola Edipo is a perfect port of call for Patti Smith and Stephan Crasneanscki, who have named their tracks on the EP Correspondences Vol. 1 Pasolini and Medea. These two songs on Correspondences are audiovisual journeys that trigger reflection and spark conversations about cinema and poetry. Cinema itself gave rise to the deep bond between the singer-songwriter, poet, photographer, and painter Patti Smith and Pier Paolo Pasolini.
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 the impact of climate change.

The Program
From August 29th to September 1st, in the Sala Laguna, there will be a screening of Medea by Pier Paolo Pasolini and Andrei Rublev by Andrei Tarkovsky, which reveal the inspiration for Correspondences.
On August 31st, at 6 pm, the Sala Laguna will host a masterclass held by Patti Smith and Stephan Crasneanscki from Soundwalk Collective. For this event in the program of Isola Edipo’s “Cinema of Inclusivity: Screenings and Workshops”, now in its eighth year, admission is free. The artists will compare notes on the audiovisual creative process behind Correspondences.
On September 2nd, at 8 pm, arranged by Cinema Galleggiante, there will be a screening of four films from the Correspondences series, with Soundwalk Collective and Patti Smith in attendance. The screenings will be followed by a live moment by the artists and a short film by Artavazd Pelechian.

MEDEA
Pier Paolo Pasolini
Italy, 1969, 110′
Charged with leading the Argonauts to Colchis to retrieve the Golden Fleece, the enterprising Jason persuades the priestess Medea, to steal the cult object in his place and come to Corinth with him. Infatuated with Jason, Medea agrees to commit the theft, throwing her own community into disarray, once its treasure has vanished. Ten years later, Jason and Medea have two children, but their relationship is shaky. Jason is now enamored of the young Glauce, daughter Creon, king of Corinth, and is eager to marry her to enhance his own social standing. Distraught over the certainty of losing her man, Medea plots her revenge and reconnects with her original gift of sorcery.

ANDREI RUBLEV
Andrei Tarkovsky
Soviet Union, 1966, 205′
A biography of the master icon painter Andrei Rublev that doubles as a history of Russia after the Tartar invasions. Andrei is a young monk who paints frescoes in 15^th-century Russian churches. He lives for his art, along with his religious faith. Then the city of Vladimir, where he lives and works, is sacked, and Andrei witnesses scenes of unspeakable violence. He himself is forced to kill a man, defending a young woman from a foreign soldier. Shocked by this turn of events, he withdraws into himself and refuses to continue painting. He will only pick up his brushes once more when he understands that the function of art is not merely to satisfy those who possess the gift of making it.

“Correspondences started as long conversations strolling down the street. A flânerie in different cities where we spent time together. Those discussions inspired future journeys for me. I prefer to go to a place and let the sound dictate my time and space. I go with an open ear and heart, it is an act of presence to record. I’m not a musician, I come from field recording and sonic art, I often allow sound to lead the way in the development of a track. You often go with one sound in mind, but another one may happen to take the audible space instead, and this overlapping creates a musicality, a potential, a direction.” (Stephan Crasneanscki)
“Listening to one another is crucial, and Stephan excels in this regard. He is a beautiful listener, able to appreciate simple things like the sound of pebbles colliding, a sound he encountered despite his global wanderings over various pebbled paths. Listening becomes a profound way to connect with our inner selves, to hear our own blood, as it carries the knowledge of our ancestors.” (Patti Smith)

Soundwalk Collective is the contemporary sonic arts platform founded by the artist Stephan Crasneanscki and the 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 multidisciplinary lines, Soundwalk Collective can boast long-term creative collaborations with the likes of the late filmmaker Jean-Luc Godard, photographer Nan Goldin, choreographer Sasha Waltz, actress and singer Charlotte Gainsbourg, and, obviously, Patti Smith. In so doing, 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 is the common thread running through the myriad forms in which Soundwalk Collective work. For original compositions and archival recordings alike, they treat sound as a material that is both tactile and poetic. This allows them to create layered narratives that address ideas of memory, time, love, and loss.

Patti Smith released her first album, Horses, in 1975. It was added to the National Recording Registry of the Library of Congress in 2010, by the National Recording Preservation Board. Her albums include Radio Ethiopia; Easter, which features the track Because the Night, co-written with Bruce Springsteen; Wave; Dream of Life, featuring People Have the Power, co-written with her husband, Fred Sonic Smith; Gone Again; Peace and Noise; Gung Ho; Trampin’; Land; Twelve; Banga; and Outside Society. Smith has been nominated four times for a Grammy® and once for a Golden Globe, for the song Mercy Is, co-written with Lenny Kaye for the film Noah. Smith received the prestigious National Book Award in 2010 for her bestselling memoir, Just Kids, the story of her close friendship with photographer Robert Mapplethorpe and the evolution of their work together. She has also authored Witt, Babel, Woolgathering, The Coral Sea, Auguries of Innocence, Collected Lyrics, M Train, Devotion, and Year of the Monkey. Among her many honors, in 2007 Smith was inducted into to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. Her famous band features the guitarist and songwriter Lenny Kaye, with whom she has worked since 1971; the drummer Jay Dee Daugherty, since 1975; Tony Shanahan on bass and keyboard since 1996; and her son, guitarist Jackson Smith, for over a decade. Currently, Smith continues to write and perform, in support of human rights issues and environmental groups, mainly Pathway to Paris, a non-profit organization co-founded by her daughter, Jesse Paris Smith.

Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain has maintained an ongoing dialogue with Patti Smith for over fifteen years. In 2008, it invited the American artist and musician to present “Patti Smith, Land 250”, her first retrospective, which revealed the myriad facets of her artistic output. Several works by Patti Smith belong to the Fondation Cartier Collections and have been presented in Paris, Milan, Seoul, and Buenos Aires. After presenting the revolutionary film La Nature by Artavazd Pelechian and next showcasing Yanomami cinema through the works of filmmaker Morzaniel Iramari in 2023, Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain renews its partnership with Isola Edipo and Giornate degli Autori this year and also embarks on a new collaboration with Cinema Galleggiante to premiere the unique work created by Patti Smith and Soundwalk Collective. 

Cinema Galleggiante – Acque Sconosciute is a cultural festival held in the Venice Lagoon, in the waters behind the island of Giudecca. A floating stage, visible from one’s own boat or from a second floating platform, hosts a large array of screenings and performances by international and local artists. Cinema Galleggiante – Acque Sconosciute showcases experimental works involving images in motion, ranging from film to the visual arts. Over the years, the program has included pre-cinema techniques, such as shadow puppetry and magic lanterns, silent films with live soundtracks, film screenings, and performances using projectors and digital technologies.