Patti Smith Performs at Opening of Vatican Pavilion at Venice Biennale

Patti Smith performed with the Soundwalk Collective at the Church of Santa Maria di Nazareth in Venice on Friday 8 May 2026. The half-hour event formed part of the official opening of the Holy See Pavilion of the Vatican at the 61st Venice Biennale and was organised in collaboration with Onassis Culture. The performance consisted of three works created for the occasion.

Patti Smith sang texts and hymns by Saint Hildegard of Bingen, the 12th-century Benedictine nun, poet, healer and composer whose monastery in Germany remains active with thirty nuns who follow her teachings, sing and cultivate its gardens. The performance took place within the exhibition titled “The Ear is the Eye of the Soul”.

The exhibition is curated by Hans Ulrich Obrist and Ben Vickers and was produced in collaboration with Soundwalk Collective.

It is presented at two venues: the Secret Garden of the Discalced Carmelites in Cannaregio and the Santa Maria Ausiliatrice complex in Castello. The exhibition features twenty-four specially commissioned works by artists including Jim Jarmusch, Brian Eno, FKA twigs, Kali Malone and Meredith Monk. Twenty-one of the works are sound pieces.

In the Secret Garden, visitors wander through the garden wearing headphones and listen to the works woven into a single soundscape by Soundwalk Collective. Stephan Crasneanscki, who founded Soundwalk Collective in 2001, spoke immediately after the performance. “We wanted to create a sonic prayer as a tribute for the inauguration of the Vatican Pavilion to Hildegard of Bingen,” he said.

Crasneanscki said Patti Smith embodies the figure of Mary as a woman and as a mother in the piece. He added that Hildegard of Bingen used the word viriditas for the idea of green force, of vitality and of being present. Soundwalk Collective is based in Berlin and New York; Simone Merli joined the group in 2008.

Patti Smith and Crasneanscki have collaborated for almost fifteen years after meeting by chance on a plane. The recording of Patti Smith’s piece for the pavilion took place in New York. Audiences in Athens will have the chance to see a special project with Jim Jarmusch on 26 October 2026, organised by the Onassis Foundation’s Stegi.