From Arca to Björk: How Paris' Bourse de Commerce Became One of Paris Most In-Demand Venues

From club nights in museums to DJs curating exhibitions, the lines between contemporary art and underground music have never felt more blurred.⁠

At the Bourse de Commerce, Cyrus Goberville is at the forefront of this movement, inviting artists like Crystallmess to host a tribute to Memphis rap and commissioning Arca to curate an experimental club night in response to her paintings.

As Head of Cultural Programs, his curation consistently pushes the boundaries of institutional programming by integrating hybrid, experimental and challenging musical forms into a contemporary art context.⁠ We spoke to the curator to delve deeper into the museum's role within Paris' cultural scene.
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Could you introduce the Bourse de Commerce and your role within the museum as the Head of Cultural Programs?

The museum opened in 2021. It used to be a stock exchange in the late 19th century and now it has been turned into a museum focused on Francois Pinault's collection, so it's the eye of one collector. There is a cultural program that I run that is mostly focused on exploring the bridge between art and music, because the music that is programmed here is happening in the context of art, so it's largely curated with contemporary artists.

How do you go about curating a live music program that responds to the museum's exhibitions in a new and exciting way?

When you're doing a cultural program, you can easily make something unequal to the exhibition that is a bit too far from what the exhibition is. It's very hard because you are making links between things that don't really exist. So now the more I think, the more that I want it [the program] to be radical in one way or the other.

Either it's a cultural partner to the exhibition and it's made with the artist, and if it's not that, I'd rather do something that is totally disconnected, and because it's disconnected, in a way, paradoxically, it is connected. Sometimes what is good with art is when you see something totally different. That's something that I really learned from a lot of artists that I love that are just putting together references that are paradoxical and that don't really fit together, but when you see them, they fit because they fit through the eyes of the artist.

What kind of role do you see the museum having within Paris' music scene as a whole?

We are a place of contemporary art, and places of contemporary art are looking always in a way or another for projects that are unusual, complex to produce and can resonate with the space. In our case, it's a Tadao Ando space. It's this insane rotunda and it's a lot of work to make something good happen here. We love crazy ideas in a site specific space where the artists shift their proposal throughout the process, so it's totally different than a normal venue in a way, it's not a plug-and-play thing.

What makes the Bourse de Commerce unique within Paris' cultural ecosystem?

The Bource de Commerce has many advantages. First, it's a beautiful building, and the renovation by Tadao Ando is both simple and striking. The second great advantage is that it's in the very center of Paris, so it's very democratic. Then the other thing is that it's the eye of a collector that has a very particular taste. Francois Pinault has been collecting amazing artists for years and years and it has always been an inspiration in the way I've been making my program.

"We love crazy ideas in a site-specific space, where the artists shift their proposal throughout the process. It's totally different than a normal venue in a way"

What do you think it is about Paris that makes it such fertile ground for experimental and cross-disciplinary cultural programming?

In Paris, there are very high and prestigious spaces for art, but still at the same time there are local places that are showing the underground. Sometimes it's not even venues, just like people showing what they can, where they can, which I think is cool.

It combines both worlds, which I do love about Paris, and I think when you have a great popular culture, and at the same time, a great niche culture, it can create great things.