Björk has shared the new video for ‘Victimhood’.
The track appears on 2022 album ‘Fossora’, a hugely creative work by the Icelandic auteur. Currently on tour, Björk surprised fans during her Cornucopia performance at the Altice Arena in Lisbon over the weekend with something new.
Unveiled during the performance, the video for ‘Victimhood’ is a meditation on motherhood, sacrifice, and self-pity, pieced together with Jungian imagery.
Björk pieced the video together alongside director Gabríela Friðriksdóttir, and the results are ethereal, but also incredibly potent. Director Gabríela Friðriksdóttir comments…
“I was absolutely fascinated by the song. I couldn’t forget it, I had some dreams about it too. It was a deep connection from the first time I heard it. The song deals with things that I often think about, it’s about self-pity and how ridiculous you were or how funny you were in a situation, or in a strange place where you had hard times, and then you see yourself. Instead of pointing at somebody else all the time, it’s so nice to rediscover yourself. To break through the concrete mask of a certain feeling at a certain time. I think in the lyrics themselves, there’s this poetry about a human situation that’s really welcoming for everyone, I think everyone can understand it”.
Björk continues; “I sort of have this illusion idea of myself as being this kind of optimist. But you have to be truthful. It’s trickier to catch the tail of the self-pity for an optimist. Sometimes it becomes the role of the women, in difficult situations to take on the catharsis and emotional work, and if there’s some dark shadows or forces in a situation, we’ll convert it into sort of good energy, for other family members, so they don’t have to, we will take care of it. That’s a strange kind of victim hat too, you choose to do that, nobody asked you to. That’s maybe where the humour comes in. It’s very interesting. I just love this painting so much. These characters are so magical, they just have such deep, deep meaning for me”.
Watch ‘Victimhood’ below.
Video credits
Directors: Gabríela Friðriksdóttir & Pierre-Alain Giraud
Creative direction: Gabríela Friðriksdóttir & Pierre-Alain Giraud
Artwork: Gabríela Friðriksdóttir
Animation: Pierre-Alain Giraud
Co-production: Novaya
Photography: Sigríður Fransiska Friðriksdóttir “Siskachisk”
Photo Credit: Santiago Felipe
