Arca revisits «XXXXX» in the «Fxck» video ahead of MIRA Festival
A two-hour performance becomes a compact audiovisual statement. Arca's «Fxck» video, directed by Daniel Sannwald, reshapes footage from «XXXXX:Diva.Experimental», filmed in an abandoned Barcelona factory.
A two-hour performance becomes a compact audiovisual statement. Arca’s «Fxck» video, directed by Daniel Sannwald, reshapes footage from «XXXXX:Diva.Experimental», filmed in an abandoned Barcelona factory.
From a two-hour performance to an independent music video
There is a particular tension in turning a work made for a continuous live broadcast into a short standalone video. «XXXXX:Diva.Experimental» was staged in an abandoned factory in Barcelona, directed by Daniel Sannwald with lighting by Matiere Noire. Its original format allowed images and musical ideas to accumulate over time. «Fxck» instead uses editing to create connections at a different speed: what may have felt like part of a larger ritual is now presented as a concentrated audiovisual statement.
The new clip also illustrates how Arca treats the visual dimension of an album as part of its artistic vocabulary rather than a last-minute promotional add-on. The wider «XXXXX» campaign included a series of twelve video fragments released around the album. With a MIRA Festival appearance scheduled in Barcelona on 6 November and the vinyl edition due on 13 November, the project continues across several distinct formats.
The connection between image and music is fundamental to the project. Arca introduced «XXXXX» with a broadcast occupying the space between installation, concert film and performance. The new video edits that experience into a separate visual narrative.
Why the editing is the story
The strongest idea behind the video is its change of scale. What once belonged to a prolonged performance, with the audience watching it unfold in real time, is now a deliberately selected sequence of images. Sannwald is not merely documenting a concert: he is deciding which gestures, bodies and visual transitions can survive outside that original duration. In an era of short music clips, that shift is especially revealing for an artist who has built much of her work around transformation and unstable identities. The Barcelona setting also makes the release timely for local audiences ahead of MIRA, where the same experimental attitude will be encountered in a very different physical setting.
Released in September, «XXXXX» marked Arca’s return to the long-form album format after five years. The visual work extends her interest in transformed identities and experimental sound, but this is a story about the video’s construction rather than a full album review.
Listen and dates
Arca is scheduled to appear at Barcelona’s MIRA Festival on 6 November, with the album’s vinyl release due on 13 November. The show will offer another setting for an audiovisual language developed across music, film and performance.
Official links: Ver el videoclip «Fxck» · Escuchar «XXXXX».