Arca presents "The Light Comes in the Name of the Voice"
The Bourse de Commerce—Pinault Collection presents the multidisciplinary artist Arca in her first large-scale series of events in Paris. The program includes two site-specific performances in the Rotunda, the first exhibition of her paintings, and a club night in the museum space. This event marks Arca's return to Paris, five years after her last concert in the city.
Program
March 1 & 2 — ROTUNDA
- 9 pm – 10 pm: Arca (improvisations on magnetic resonator piano)
March 3 — FOYER (DJ sets)
- 8:30 pm: Doors open
- 9 pm: Bobby Beethoven
- 10 pm: Björk
- 11 pm: Arca
- Midnight: Dj Babatr
- 1 am: Nkisi
Bookings for the 1, 2 and 3 March at 9pm are full.
On March 2, during opening hours of the Bourse de Commerce-Pinault Collection, the magnetic resonator piano plays on its own in the Rotunda, thanks to Bronze AI technology. On March 2 and 3, during museum opening hours, a series of paintings by Arca is exhibited in the Foyer. Accessible from 11am to 7pm with an exhibitions ticket.
Venezuelan-born, Barcelona-based Arca is one of the world’s most visionary artists in contemporary music. She gained recognition with her 2012 EPs, Stretch 1 and Stretch 2, known for their bass-heavy structures at the intersection of club music and hip-hop. These breakthroughs led Arca to produce music for acclaimed artists such as Björk, Ryuchi Sakamoto, and most recently, Lil Uzi Vert. Since then, she has continually evolved, creating an unprecedented body of work, including her KICK project (2019-2021), a mythical five-album cycle that bridges pop references with underground music, spanning club and experimental electronics to Latin-influenced ballads and hybrid reggaeton. Arca’s music is characterized by constant transformation, pushing boundaries and serving as the keystone of a new generation of musicians and the queer community.
Arca presents her new musical exploration, "The Light Comes in the name of the Voice" at the Bourse de Commerce. In a diffuse and ghostly manner, Arca previously inhabited the museum’s Rotunda in 2022 for the Echo2 installation by Philippe Parreno, presented on the occasion of the exhibition "Une seconde d’éternité." Her composition was continuously broadcasted thanks to the AI technology developed by Bronze.The unique acoustics of this monumental space, formed by the union of the 19th-century Halle aux blés and Tadao Ando's concrete cylinder, offer her a distinctive echo chamber and a new playground.
Produced specifically for this space, "The Light Comes in the name of the Voice" begins as a minimal quest for sound transformation. It is first formed between Arca and a magnetic resonated piano -an electronically-augmented acoustic instrument that produces new acoustic sounds from the piano strings, inducing vibrations to create countless crescendos and harmonics, all controlled from the keyboard. During the daytime, as Arca disappears, the magnetic resonated piano continues to broadcast sound using AI technology trained on Arca's playing created by Jack Armitage and Victor Shepardson at the Intelligent Instruments Lab in Reykjavik, Iceland. Meanwhile, the museum's basement hosts "Angels" a series of dark and clinical paintings created by Arca between 2019 and 2023, shown to the public for the first time. These paintings represent a single image, a stillness, and the receptacle of different states.
On the last evening, the paintings become the backdrop for a club night curated by Arca in the museum’s basement, featuring pop and underground music. The party brings together Bobby Beethoven (formerly known as Total Freedom), known for skillfully blending clashing sounds, Caracas legendary DJ Babatr, master of radical and sharp techno sets Nkisi, and Arca’s longtime collaborator and musician Björk.
Directed by Arca. Organized by Cyrus Goberville, Head of Cultural Programs at the Bourse de Commerce – Pinault Collection. Light design by Matière Noire & Vincent de Belleval. 4DSOUND design and live diffusion by Poul Holleman. Animative sound arrangements by Bronze. Creative coordination by Reference Studios. Flower arrangement by Debeaulieu
Prices :
1st and 2nd March in the Rotunda: Full price 29€ / Reduced price 25€ / Membership Pinault Collection 20€ / Super Cercle 15€.
3 March in the Foyer: Full Price €18 / Reduced Price €15 / Membership Pinault Collection €13 / Super Cercle €9