Self-Portrait, n.d, Graphite, crayon and colored pencil and on paper. Exhibition Patti Smith, Land 250, Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain,Paris, March 28 – June 22, 2008, © Patti Smith, 2008, Courtesy Robert Miller Gallery

"It's the beginning of a dialogue between me and the people to show the diversity of my work...an open door welcoming people into my world."

"Land 250" is a major solo exhibition of  Smith's visual work drawn from pieces created between 1967 and 2007. Hence the exhibition is something of a portrait of the artist during those years. Accompanied by large worn leather chairs it attempts to recreate the atmosphere of Smith's New York loft and strives to provide insight into her lyrical, spiritual and poetic universe. Her expressive voice serves to magnify the installations created specifically for the exhibition: a synthesis of photographs, drawings films and favorite objects.

No wonder that Smith is so popular in France. Much of her early artistic inspiration came from such key figures of French culture as Arthur Rimbaud, Jean Genet and Antonin Artaud. In 1969 she went to Paris with her sister and started busking and doing performance art. Paris echoes throughout, from drawings executed in the Montparnasse district, where she lived during her first Parisian sojourn in 1969 to recent photographs taken in the the garden of the Fondation Cartier. Smith was awarded the  "Insignes de Commandeur dans l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres" by the French Republic in 2005

Describing her polaroids she said "I first took polaroids in the early 1970's as components for collages.  Most of them are lost.... In 1995 after the the death of my husband, I was unable to center on the complex process of drawing, recording or writing a poem. The need for immediacy drew me again to the polaroid. ...The instantaneous method gave me a sense of release and served my creative needs. In 2002 I switched to a vintage Land 250. I am not a photographer, yet taking pictures has given me a sense of unity and personal satisfaction. They are relics of my life. Souvenirs of my wandering."

Several of the Polaroids on display show the resting places of Mozart, Rimbaud or French philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre. There is an entry ticket to the Rimbaud Museum. It was the 19th century poet Arthur Rimbaud who started Smith's love affair with France when she discovered his book "Illuminations" in a used bookshop. "I loved everything about him," she recalls. "His youth, his beauty, his language, his irreverence, his spiritual quest."

Describing her 1973 homage to Rimbaud she said, "I made a solitary pilgrimage to Charleville by way of Paris. I took the train to Charleville-Mezières and my emotions, arriving in the evening in the soft rain was so overwhelming that I wept." Having little money I purchased some modest but lovely graph paper at the local "papeterie" on which to sketch and record my impressions. All my adventures there are written elsewhere but... my most precious souvenir of that time (takes) the form of a small sketch which I executed in the half light of the Musée Rimbaud. Within this sketch is all the rebellious reverence of my youth. Tho angry with the world-sentimental enough to be moved to tears by the sight of Rimbaud's valise and scarf....I still cherish my ticket from my visit.... it says Musee de l'Ardenne Expositions. Prix d'entrée 1F no. 009014. One franc so dutifully spent produced a lifetime of memories bittersweet."
The Paris exhibition "Land 250" is a chance to share some of those bittersweet memories  with Patti Smith.

"Patti Smith, Land 250" To June 22, Fondation Cartier, pour l'art contemporain, 261, bd Raspail, 75014 Paris.

Patti Smith & her Band will perform in Paris  Saturday, June 7 at 8:30 p.m. Following their performance in April, Patti Smith and her band are returning to the Fondation Cartier for a new acoustic concert. 190 tickets will be put on sale at the FNAC offices on Saturday May, 24 at 10 a.m. (max. 2 tickets per person). Weather permitting, the concert will take place in the garden and 500 tickets will be put on sale at the Fondation Cartier at 5 p.m. on the day itself.