Stephan Crasneanscki

Stephan Crasneanscki (b. 1969, Grenoble) is an artist based in New York who works across sound, field recording, film, and text. He founded Soundwalk Collective in New York in 2000, which has been the primary platform for his practice. Its work ranges from concept albums and sound installations to live performances and films, developed through long-term collaborations with artists from music, literature, dance, and cinema

Crasneanscki has made extensive recordings across remote and historically charged locations worldwide — deserts, coastlines, forests, post-industrial sites — which become the material for collaborative projects. With Patti Smith, an ongoing project titled CORRESPONDENCES has produced albums, films, and installations built from his field recordings and Smith's poetry, including a trilogy devoted to the legacies of Antonin Artaud (Ethiopia), Arthur Rimbaud (the Abyssinian plateau), and René Daumal (the Himalayas). With Nan Goldin, Close to the Knives (2018) produced a work in memory of David Wojnarowicz. Research in Jean-Luc Godard's personal film archive produced the sound composition and photobook What We Leave Behind (Libraryman, 2021). Soundwalk Collective has also collaborated with Charlotte Gainsbourg, choreographer Sasha Waltz, and filmmaker Philippe Grandrieux, with whom Crasneanscki and Smith co-published Medea in 2023.

Soundwalk Collective has exhibited and performed at the Centre Pompidou, Documenta, Manifesta, the KW Institute for Contemporary Art in Berlin, LUMA Arles, the Louvre Abu Dhabi, and the New Museum, among others.