The silent spring of Rachel Carson exposed the dangers of pesticides, sparked environmental awareness, and launched the modern ecological movement worldwide. Today, this silence is also connected to the intensification of wildfires, the silence of forests once teeming with life, the roar of ice melting into the ocean and the growls of storms sweeping onto coastal communities. The sound of climate change and extinction resonates both with eerie silence and with the ultra-loud operations of extractive capitalism both on land and at sea. The absence of natural sounds is a haunting reminder of ecosystems lost and the urgent call to protect what remains.
Soundwalk Collective and Patti Smith
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.