Pharrell Williams collaborated with French conceptual artist Sophie Calle for her latest show in Paris where Pharrell had the assignment to write a song dedicated to the memory of her late cat Souris with other 37 contributors including Bono, Michael Stipe, Arnaud Cathrine and more. Many contributors chose to compose pieces specifically about Souris, while others wrote songs about cats in general and some focused on the broader themes of grief, loss, and absence.
The resulting three-volume compilation featuring 39 Songs debuts at Calle’s solo show at Galerie Perrotin in Paris, which opened on Saturday. Visitors can listen to each track at stations around the gallery and view the video Calle sent to musicians for inspiration, as well as a selection of accompanying texts, photographs, and other works dealing with loss and grief. “You can’t say that. I mean, if I say my mother or my father is dead, everyone tells me, ‘Oh, poor thing, she lost her mother, oh, poor thing, she lost her father,’ but if we say that about our cat, we seem ridiculous. It makes me laugh, when for me, in my daily life, it was almost more violent, because I lived with my cat. I didn’t live with my parents.” Check out my Extended Version below.
Pharrell Williams – A Cat Named Mouse (18′)