A mission impossible: at best, ten months separated the end of 2014 from October 1975, Horses’ anniversary date of release.
And it was more than likely that research and requests for authorizations in the fields listed above would eat up the estimated capital of time by at least three months minimum. Then this would leave barely six or seven months maximum for the artistic work itself.

Disheartened and ready to give up, a glimmer of hope however lit my way : if it was unthinkable to express all of Horses in paintings in such a limited time, perhaps the task could be shared with another artist, who would devote to half of the disc's compositions by giving his or her personal vision of Patti Smith's work? I then immediately thought of my friend photographer Véronique Durruty, whose art I appreciated, a body of work deployed within a sensitive exploration of the senses, a demanding beautiful work with a formal freedom exploring as much people as places, atmospheres and landscapes as faces and souls. And I also knew Véronique to be an unconditional fan of Patti Smith’s music -a prerequisite for considering a collaboration with her on this theme. It also seemed to me that the often “wild” and taboo-free spirit that Véronique Durruty showed in her artistic approach would find a beautiful echo in the American "punk" poet-rocker’s compositions.
Despite the deadlines’ pitfall, Véronique accepted : the theme and the challenge obviously fascinated her – which was hardly surprising on her part, given her personality. Very quickly, we decided to divide up the work by choosing four compositions each. Which could easily have become a source of conflict from the start, in case we ended up betting on the same horse (without intentional bad puns here). But this is precisely where the first small miracle in this exhibition occurred. We were very surprised to discover that each of us had selected the very four tracks that the other one had precisely left out, without us ever needing to concert about the selection topic previously. A true story.