In a blend of visual arts and music, the Exotic Immensity exhibition takes us on a walk through a giant diorama, an old-fashioned, and somewhat surreal stage set. Take a journey back over the sounds of Discrepant, the record label founded by Gonçalo F. Cardoso, while diving into the strange and tropical world of American artist Evan Crankshaw. Between eye-popping images (combining a giant crab and rocks inhabited by ghosts) and sound collages partly created by the visitors, the entire spirit of this Portuguese label will be in the spotlight, showcasing how it has achieved a perfect balance between the graphic and musical worlds over the years.

Inspired by Joseph Conrad’s iconic novel, Heart of Darkness, the exhibition draws on the book’s muggy and feverish atmosphere and borrows the title, Exotic Immensity, from a pamphlet written by one of the novel’s main characters, Kurtz, a sort of demigod and spectral being… a voice that emerges from within the darkness.

The exhibition will feature two evening concerts by artists from the label, in the heart of the setting imagined by Evan Crankshaw. To further capture the Discrepant universe, the show on Monday 27 March will open with Pierre Bastien and his poetic world of popular traditions and mechanical music, and Andrew Pekler and his Sounds from Phantom Islands project, dedicated to imaginary islands.

On Sunday, 23 April, three artists from the label will wrap up the adventure, with a dreamy audio journey to the foothills of the Andes (Tomás Tello), a toy piano and clock chimes (Pak Yan lau) and exotica for artificial plants (The Dead Mauriacs). At the same time, the Rennes-based record shop Blindspot will be hosting a retrospective exhibition of the label’s best record sleeves, which can be visited during the store’s usual opening hours, from 24 March to 24 April.