Press release: Patti Smith, People Have The Power

 PATTI SMITH CELEBRATES BIDEN INAUGURATION WITH FREE VIRTUAL PERFORMANCE

Press Release
Tuesday 19 January 2021

YouTube Link: https://youtu.be/xP3DBQXjgM0

Invoking the people in a call to power, Patti Smith’s CIRCA commission continues with a specially recorded performance of ‘People Have The Power’ and ‘Grateful’ recorded especially by the artist in New York:

“It’s a beautiful night, we have a new President and Vice President and our democracy seems to be quite intact. 2020 has been a Blakean year but I think the glad day is coming. This performance goes to everyone, it’s for everyone all over the world. Fred wrote it so that it might be embraced and it might inspire people globally, and it has.”

Set against a montage of footage that pays homage to individuals and organisations, past and present, who have used their voice to help create a better future (Shirley Chisholm; Kamala Harris; Greta Thunberg; Naomi Wadler; The Soup Kitchen, Holborn; The Emergency Designer Network, and many more) this 30-minute presentation combines music with poetry, and includes an electrifying performance of ‘Because The Night’ by Thigh High (Tom Rasmussen and Hatty Carman).

Free to watch on the CIRCA YouTube channel (20:21GMT/15:21EST) on 20 January 2021, Patti Smith has also created a series of four prints, each costing £100 excl.VAT in support of the #CIRCAECONOMY which endeavours to support the UK’s struggling creative community: https://shop.circa.art

Created by artist Josef O’Connor, CIRCA commissions a different artist each month to present new ideas that consider our world circa 2021. Each artist is invited to create a new work for Europe’s largest screen, offering an innovative and exciting way for people to engage with art, both outside and online, in a safe and socially distanced way.

NOTES TO EDITORS

About Patti Smith
Patti Smith (b. 1946) lives and works in New York City. She is a singer-songwriter, poet, and visual artist, known for her revolutionary merging of poetry and rock. In 1971, her first poetry reading at St Mark’s Church would go on to influence her debut album, Horses, which has since been hailed as one of the top one hundred albums of all time by Rolling Stone. Her books include Just Kids, winner of the National Book Award in 2010, Wītt, Babel, Woolgathering, The Coral Sea, and Auguries of Innocence. In 2005, the French Ministry of Culture awarded Smith the title of Commandeur des Arts et des Lettres. She was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2007.

Special Thanks
CIRCA would especially like to thank Kay Pallister and Mark Francis from Gagosian who helped make this special collaboration with Patti Smith possible.

Supporters
CIRCA is made possible with the kind support of individuals, institutions and galleries. We are especially grateful to Piccadilly Lights, The Serpentine Galleries, Collezione Maramotti, The Art Newspaper, Lisson Gallery, Gagosian, Whitechapel Gallery, The Showroom, Art Rabbit and the ICA for their support of the programme.

For more information, please contact:
press@circa.art