Patti Smith to Pay Tribute to Oscar Wilde at English Prison Event

Patti Smith to Pay Tribute to Oscar Wilde at English Prison Event

Patti Smith will participate in “Inside—Artists and Writers in Reading Prison,” a newly announced event that will pay tribute to Oscar Wilde. She’ll read selections from Wilde’s prison letter, De Profundisalongside the novelist Colm Toibin, the actors Ben Whishaw and Ralph Fiennes, and others. Organized by Artangel, the exhibition will take place at the Reading Gaol, the prison where Wilde was imprisoned after being convicted for gross indecency in 1895. De Profundis was a letter Wilde wrote to his lover and friend Lord Alfred Douglas (addressed as “Bosie” in the letter), reflecting on his relationship with Douglas, his life before the conviction, and a spiritual awakening that occurred in prison. 

The exhibition will open on September 4 and end on October 30. Newly commissioned work by Wolfgang Tillmans, Steve McQueen, Ai Weiwei, Jeanette Winterson, and others will also be included in the exhibition. This is the first time the prison will be open to the public and in use since its closure in 2013, according to The New York Times

Patti Smith is also set to release a tribute album to Nico, in collaboration with the the Soundwalk Collective in September. Tillmans just released a techno record called 2016 / 1986

 Read “Patti Smith’s M Train Is the Happiest Depiction of Melancholia” on the Pitch. 

Watch Courtney Barnett discuss Patti Smith’s “Free Money” for Pitchfork.tv: 

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