Following the release of his self-titled new album last Friday, Arca has revealed a new video for “Desafío,” which translates as “Challenge” or “Defiance.” The track is as close to a straight up pop-dance song as Arca has made, with building sirens and synths layered under his sweet vocal. But the video is as wonderfully weird and raw as “Anoche” and “Reverie” —the first two installments of a trio that “Desafío” completes.
The video opens on Arca prone on the ground in a black leather straightjacket, his signature suspenders, and thigh-high boots. Blue lights flash and sirens build. Dragged backwards across the dirt, he then finds himself in a woodland clearing as four benign gangsters stare down at him, unmoved by his stumbling and clinging to them. In “Anoche,” Arca danced somberly at the apparent scene of a massacre, and in “Reverie,” he played both sides of a bullfight, wearing a matador jacket and hooved animatronic bull’s legs.
Tickets for Arca and Jesse Kanda’s London show on April 28 are on sale now.
Read: Dance To Your Own Rhythm: Arca is shot and interviewed by Wolfgang Tillmans
Credits
Text Charlotte Gush