The Light Comes in the Name of the Voice

On the outskirts of Medellín, Colombia in the late 1980s, local residents report strange lights descending from the sky. When a reporter arrives to investigate, a ragtag group of teens from a lawless neighbourhood storm the scene and steal his camera. In the hands of its new owners, the device records a mesmerising plunge into their frantic existence.

TRAUMA is a collaborative film project by Jesse Kanda and Arca first partially exhibited at MoMA PS1 at the end of 2013. The film follows a nonlinear narrative about the death of a salaryman, a drunk driving infant and takes place within a subconscious world. TRAUMA's score will span through Arca's existing and future works.

Following the brutal murder of a young real estate agent, a hardened detective attempts to uncover the truth in a case where nothing is as it seems, and by doing so dismantles the illusions in his own life.

A surrealist, sci-fi, neo-noir fable about a hard-boiled but heartbroken detective whose new case takes him on the trail of a giant missing king and his tiny, adorable alien baby. The delirious short takes place in a far future equal parts Blade Runner and Bruegel the Elder, full of tough-talking gangsters, jaw-dropping neon vistas, and enough bizarre creatures and robots to fill several Star Wars cantinas. The world-building illustrates the animator’s philosophy that movies can be as much about their setting as they are their characters.

New York, post 9/11: Armed with a home video camera and no script, the director delves into the private lives of four women artists and transgender activists from the city’s underground subculture, filming their lives over a period of 10 years. Little by little, their testimonies reveal fragments of their pasts, their experiences and their struggles for an identity of their own. A series of revelations transform the viewer from feeling like an intruder to being invested in their destinies.

Björk is crouched in a womb-like Icelandic cave, throwing her body against the stones that surround her. Slowly, she starts dancing triumphantly through corridors of black volcanic rock. This MoMA-commissioned film was directed by visual guru Andrew Thomas Huang and filmed over three days in Björk’s native Iceland. In the film, her intimate, one-on-one performance embodies the grueling post-heartbreak healing process, augmented by Huang’s stunning VFX.

Arca forms a visual and sonic world that merges reality and fantasy. In collaboration with Frederik Heyman, images are created that celebrate psychosexual versatility, desire and transformation. “Prada” explores trans identity, shamelessness and desire as a infinite continuum, while “Rakata” honours the origins of Latin American music with sensual heat – a vibrant fusion of bodies, sound and space.