Jarvis Art Jam

Singer plays yoga classes at a gallery in Paris

10 May 2009 - Drawing on his art school background Jarvis Cocker’s latest project has been part music, part art instillation at a one room art gallery down a side street in Paris.

The singer has been leading impromptu jam sessions at the gallery all week and claims he is trying to find out what happens when a rock group moves away from traditional venues, gets off stage and alongside fans.

He said he was interested in finding new ways to revive pop music and keep fans engaged:

“You have to provide a background noise that’s appropriate to the thing that’s going on. So we talk to the people before and ask them what kind of music they want and we try and provide that. People are saying the music industry is dead so I thought, ‘well maybe this means it should move into an art gallery because maybe that’s where it can survive’.”

Throughout the project, Jarvis has also provided background music for yoga, pilates, aerobics and children's classes in the gallery. He’s never been one to shy away from an experiment and he explained why this one appealed to him:

“I’ve had an art school education. I did a film course at St Martins but still, music is the thing that I use to express myself. So to me it’s an art form. Whether it belongs in a gallery or not, I don’t know but it’s been interesting to put it there and see what happens.”

"I’ve had an art school education. I did a film course at St Martins but still, music is the thing that I use to express myself." Jarvis Cocker

Jarvis offered to make up songs based on suggestions from members of the audience, and let people watch his band's rehearsals. He said it was about getting the public to engage with music like they do with art:

“If you go into a gallery, the painting doesn’t perform just for you, you sit there and you look at it and you see what you get from it. So, we tried to approach it in that way. It was up to the audience whether they wanted to sit there for an hour or leave disgusted after 30 seconds.”

Most of the gigs were jamming sessions, as Jarvis would invite strangers to join him on stage. Keeping things unrehearsed and spontaneous made the performances more interesting and dynamic. He explained how bonds were formed between the musicians:

“It was great to realise that you can perform without a safety net. People turn up, they plug in and you don’t know what they are going to play. That’s kind of nice. You get complete strangers but then if you play music with people you do build up some kind of relationship with them.”




Elizabeth Alker