Arca has shared a particularly striking visual for "Xen," the title track from his recently released debut album. The video, created by frequent collaborator Jesse Kanda, is like a Rorschach test made with flickering light and undulating bodies in place of ink. "This one," the Venezuelan producer explains via press release, "is about violent joy washing over the body, a celebration of sensuality and of unhinging oneself in the face of struggle."
It also, perhaps, doubles as a portrait of Xen: more than a song or album title, in his recent FADER cover story Arca describes Xen as a greater state of existence. "Whenever I made something that I was really happy with, the first or second time I listened back to it, it would almost be as if someone else made it. And in that state I would always feel connected to my childhood self again, and I would feel a lot softer and more feminine," he said. "Xen is not really a boy and it's not really a girl, and her mere existence is kind of repulsive and attractive at once, and so I imagine her under a spotlight, in this room full of people just staring, wide-eyed, openmouthed." Xen is out now on Mute.
