Patti Smith Performs a ‘Sonic Prayer’ in Venice

Patti Smith b. 1946, United States Follow +

Patti Smith, the seminal New York singer, songwriter and “punk poet laureate”, performed to an audience of fellow musicians, actors, artists and Vatican representatives in a 17th-century church earlier this week, inaugurating the Holy See pavilion at the 61st Venice Biennale.

Smith recited poetry at Santa Maria di Nazareth church, invoking the Virgin Mary and the birth of Jesus in reference to the religious setting. She performed new songs written for The Ear is the Eye of the Soul, an ensemble of new commissions by 24 artists, presented by The Dicastery for Culture and Education of the Holy See, part of the Roman Curia, the central governing body of the Catholic Church. 

Speaking intimately to the audience, which included actor Willem Defoe, Smith reflected on her own relationship to creative production. “If we have the calling of an artist, we cannot run away from it because we will be drawn back,” she said. “It reminds us that it is our mission to communicate, within our body of work, the visionary imagination. To create work that will incite, excite and inspire the people.”

She was accompanied by members of Soundwalk Collective, whose rumbling electronic drone music underscored Smith’s words with an emotional resonance that saw multiple audience members moved to tears. The opening concert was supported by the Onassis Foundation, which previously staged Correspondences, a collaboration between Smith and Soundwalk Collective in 2024.

The Holy See pavilion, curated by Hans Ulrich Obrist and Ben Vickers in collaboration with Soundwalk Collective, explores the form of a “sonic prayer”, echoing Koyo Kouoh’s curatorial proposition for the Venice Biennale to slow down and attune to a quieter register. 

Inspired by the life and legacy of the medieval abbess, poet, healer and composer Saint Hildegard of Bingen (1098–1179), participating musicians and artists include Brian Eno, Devonté Hynes, FKA Twigs, Jim Karmusch, Kali Malone, Meredith Monk, Otobong Nkanga, Terry Riley, and Smith herself. 

Visitors are invited to walk through the Mystical Garden of the Discalced Carmelites (Giardino Mistico dei Carmelitani Scalzi), a monastic green space hidden within a 17th-century convent, while listening to the musical commissions through headphones. 

“It was a great privilege to be part of this great celebration of art in this mystical garden,” Smith said. “I was thinking of Hildegard in the 12th century as I wandered through it. She was proclaimed a doctor of the church. A poet. A natural musician. And a visionary.

“She tended her garden as she sang to herself. She was the master of sonic prayer. And I thought of how artists must tend to their gardens too.”

As Smith’s performance came to a close, she offered a final parting message: “May your mystical garden bloom eternally.”

Main image: Patti Smith performs in Santa Maria di Nazareth church (2026). Photo: Louise Benson.