French Pop Duo Air Supply Soundtrack for Museum

For those of you who like a little music with your art, Nicolas Godin and Jean-Benoit Dunckel, the musicians who make up the French pop group known as Air, are the band of choice at the Palais des Beaux-Arts in Lille, France. They are the first artists selected for the institution’s new “Open Museum” program, which gives artists from other disciplines carte blanche to interact with the 19th century building and its impressive collection of European paintings, prints, drawings, and medieval and Renaissance works. Their laid back brand of electronica will  be heard wafting through the museum for the enjoyment of visitors cruising the collection.

With “Open Museum,” creators “can deploy their invention and imagination inside,” according to a release on the museum’s website.  Organizers hope the end result will be a pleasant surprise for visitors by creating “the kind of works you don’t normally expect to see in a museum, ” be it from film directors, actors, writers, fashion designers, musicians, or great chefs. “With a passion for art, whether classic or contemporary, they put forward their vision of the museum, taking it by storm in their own special way. Original soundtracks, clever combos, offbeat outlooks: anything goes, giving visitors to the museum to discover and rediscover the inspirational force of the permanent collections with a new twist.”

The duo have been working together for 15 years and created the soundtrack for Sofia Coppola’s film The Virgin Suicides as well as songs for her subsequent films Lost in Translation and Marie Antoinette. For the Palais des Beaux-Arts, the group has composed original music for the museum and its collections.  Their run continues through August 24.