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A Rainy Day and Patti Smith

By _ismus0

May 4, 2025

Updated: 08/05/2025

Category: Etc, Music

I recently visited the CORRESPONDENCES: Soundwalk Collective & Patti Smith exhibition.

The exhibition was connected through the following sections:

CORPESPONDENCES
The Acolyte, the Artist and Nature
Children of Chernobyl
Medea
Pasolini
Cry of the Lost
Prince of Anarchy
Burning 1946-2024
Mass Extinction 1946-2024

What I remember most from this exhibition were the themes related to the monasteries of the Caucasus, Slavic culture, Pier Paolo Pasolini, Andrei Tarkovsky, anarchism, and anti-authoritarianism.

While watching the exhibition’s Medea B-roll, I was reminded of The Color of Pomegranates (1968) by Sergei Parajanov, which I had recently rewatched.

In the exhibition’s section titled Prince of Anarchy, the voice of filmmaker Jean-Luc Godard was used. The exhibition also references figures related to anarchism and anti-authoritarianism – Jean-Luc Godard, Pier Paolo Pasolini, Andrei Tarkovsky, Peter Kropotkin as well as the Caucasus and countries within the Slavic cultural sphere.

I felt that this exhibition reflected the limitations of contemporary capitalism, critiques of fascism, and social contexts such as the war in Ukraine.

Furthermore, the themes of capitalism and anarchism, nature and humanity, violence and peace, life and death, which run across generations, are also posed here as questions for the next generation.

In this exhibition, Patti Smith’s poetry and songs reflect these themes.

Her poetry features symbolic keywords and metaphorical expressions such as humans, guns, dynamite, whales, wolves, dolphins, God, and freedom.

We must continue to reflect on these themes from a humanistic perspective and ask ourselves what it means to be human – because we are human.

Fortunately, I was able to attend Patti Smith’s book signing without having to wait long. It was my first time meeting her in person, and that day, the boots she wore and her styling somehow reminded me of the Patti Smith who appeared in the 2006 male Ann Demeulemeester show. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to take a photo with her that day.