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Arca Is a Wounded Matador in His Guillermo Del Toro-Worthy New Music Video

The London based singer performs an expressive song and dance as a wounded matador in his latest collaboration with artist Jesse Kanda.

A wounded bullfighter on an austere pair of stilts bleeds on falling flower petals and wrestles with a massive phallus in Arca's new music video for "Reverie." The Venezuela-born, London-based artist stars in the video, working alongside longtime collaborator Jesse Kanda, who previously directed the singer's "Anoche" music video and their experimental fashion film, TRAUMA Scene 1 . Much like in "Anoche," the singer sports a period-inspired outfit, and, in this case, a pair of leather mechanical legs with lumpy grey knee pads that look like human intestines. Shot in a single take, Arca is set against thrilling pink backdrop, struggling to stand on two feet as he goes through the motions of the operatic new track.

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It's equal parts Matthew Barney, Ernest Hemingway, and Guillermo Del Toro. "Bullfighting is a piercing metaphor: you are fighting a bull, and at the same yourself," Arca writes in a press release. "You are not the victim or the oppressor, you are both—animality and bestiality are conflated. Evoking sex invokes our animality… And evoking our animality, in turn, invokes spirituality."

Watch "Reverie" in full below:

Reverie is off Arca's forthcoming, self-titled third album, set to release April 7th on XL Recordings. You can pre-order the album here, and hear other songs by Arca on SoundCloud.

Related:

Arca And Jesse Kanda Made A Captivating Fashion Film Without Any Models

Arca And Jesse Kanda Collaborate Again On Film Oddity, 'TRAUMA Scene 1'

User Preferences: Tech Q&A With Visual Artist Jesse Kanda