Venice Biennale 61: Patti Smith and Soundwalk Collective's ritual performance

A mystical, ritual performance at the Church of Santa Maria di Nazareth was given by Patti Smith together with the Soundwalk Collective, as part of the official opening of the Holy See Pavilion of the Vatican at the 61st Venice Biennale.

The half-hour-long event, organised in collaboration with Onassis Culture, comprised three works created especially for the occasion. The texts and hymns sung by the eminent American singer-songwriter were by Saint Hildegard of Bingen, a 12th-century Benedictine nun, poet, healer and composer.

Her monastery is in Germany and remains active. Thirty nuns follow her teachings, sing and cultivate its gardens. Hildegard of Bingen and her oeuvre have been a source of inspiration for many composers, musicians and singers. She is one of the best-known composers of sacred monophonic music and the most frequently recorded in modern history.

The event took place within the exhibition of the Holy See Pavilion of the Vatican, entitled “The Ear is the Eye of the Soul”. The concept of this exhibition dovetails perfectly with Koyo Kouoh’s curatorial proposal for this year’s Biennale, which is about slowing the pace and tuning in to a quieter register.

Accordingly, in this pavilion it takes the form of a sonic prayer. It is an invitation to the contemplative act of listening, inspired by the life and legacy of Saint Hildegard of Bingen.

The exhibition at the Vatican Pavilion is curated by Hans Ulrich Obrist and Ben Vickers and was produced in collaboration with Soundwalk Collective. It is presented at two venues in Venice: in the Secret Garden of the Discalced Carmelites in Cannaregio, and at the Santa Maria Ausiliatrice complex in Castello.

It features a body of new works by 24 artists, all specially commissioned. Among them are Jim Jarmusch, Brian Eno, FKA twigs, Kali Malone and Meredith Monk.

Twenty-one of the works in the Vatican Pavilion are sound pieces. In the Secret Garden, visitors are invited to experience contemplative listening and reflection. They wander through the beautiful garden wearing headphones, listening to the new works, which Soundwalk Collective have woven into a single soundscape.

Immediately after the musical event with Patti Smith, Stephan Crasneanscki, the driving force behind Soundwalk Collective, explained to Euronews the origins of the project:

“We wanted to create a sonic prayer as a tribute for the inauguration of the Vatican Pavilion to Hildegard of Bingen. We have organised a sound exhibition here, where we wander through a monastery within a park. Her remedies and plants can still be found here. So in the monastery chapel we wanted to pay tribute to Hildegard and inaugurate the Vatican Pavilion. Within the context of the pavilion and the Venice Biennale, we offer an opportunity for reflection.

I come from the world of sound. I have been working with it for 30 years now. That is why there is such incredible excitement around this pavilion. And it is so fantastic because sound has always remained in the shadows. It has always been at the service of the image or secondary to something else. Sound art and sound itself have never really been appreciated as they deserve to be. And here, suddenly, in this garden, there is nothing but sound. And sound allows you to have an unprecedented experience. You do not see any artwork, any painting or anything else; there is only nature, which truly foregrounds the sound. It is at full strength and is a real tribute to sound.

Hildegard of Bingen focused above all on music, song and nature. And she used the word viriditas for this. It has to do with the idea of green force, of vitality and of being present, so that the world can unfold before us. So she used song, gardening and nature to ground us, to make us be present.

And so, in this sonic prayer we created with Patti Smith, the idea was also to extend this contemplative mood and to allow this opening of the heart.”

Crasneanscki founded Soundwalk Collective back in 2001, and the experimental sound-art project was joined by Simone Merli in 2008. The Berlin and New York-based group has collaborated several times with Patti Smith:

“Patti Smith and I have a long-standing collaboration that has now lasted almost 15 years. We met by chance on a plane and felt it was destiny. And since then, we have worked together many times," says Crasneanscki. "When I was given the opportunity to work for the Vatican, I immediately called Patti and suggested she create this work and join the group of artists taking part in it.

When we came to this garden and I saw this little chapel of Santa Maria at the end of the garden, I called Patti and told her: ‘This is your chapel. This is where we have to record your voice and create your piece.’ So we recorded it in New York and created a tribute to the Virgin Mary, in which Patti becomes the Virgin Mary. She embodies the figure of Mary as a woman, as a mother.”

What is it that stays with visitors to the pavilion?

“The spirit of Hildegard. That is our idea, and it underpins the entire design of the walk through the Secret Garden. It is like entering time and space, sound and music. But sound has no time. Sound is always here. The sound of the sea was here long before us and will be here long after us. Sound does not function according to our time. We invent time; sound does not know time.”

The performance by Patti Smith with Soundwalk Collective took place on Friday 8 May at the Church of Santa Maria di Nazareth in Venice.

On 26 October 2026, audiences in Athens will also have the chance to enjoy them, as they are preparing a special project with Jim Jarmusch, organised by the Onassis Foundation’s Stegi.