“Every human being has a creative impulse, and we all have the right to exercise this creative impulse” says rock poet Patti Smith. The difference between general creativity and being an artist is a true calling to produce work that endures and inspires.
In this video American singer, poet and photographer Patti Smith talks about creativity as a basic human impulse, but how there is also a level beyond that. Artists are people who have a kind of calling or artistic vision, she says. Patti Smith wanted “to give people something as special as what had been given me” – the pleasure of art and literature.
Patti Smith (b.1946) is an award-winning American punk rock musician, poet and visual artist, who became a highly influential figure in the New York City punk rock scene with her debut album ‘Horses’ in 1975. Smith fuses rock and poetry in her work, and has been dubbed the ”punk poet laureate” as well as ”the godmother of punk.” In 2007 she was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and in 2010 Rolling Stone magazine put her on the 47th place of their list of 100 Greatest Artists. Among her many albums are ’Horses’ (1975), ’Radio Ethiopia’ (1976), ’Easter’ (1978), ’Gone Again’ (1996) and ’Banga’ (2012). Smith is also the author of several books, including ’Woolgathering’ (1992), ’Just Kids’ (2010) – which won the National Book Award and describes her relationship to her lover and friend, photographer Robert Mapplethorpe – and ’M Train’ (2015).
Interview by Christian Lund, at the Louisiana Literature festival at Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, 2012.
Edited by: Honey Biba Beckerlee
Produced by: Christian Lund
Copyright: Louisiana Channel, Louisiana Museum of Modern Art
Supported by Nordea-fonden
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