As we close in on the one-year anniversary of Björk’s latest album Fossora, it appears as if this chapter of the innovative songwriter’s career is still going strong. As she tours Europe these next couple months in support of the release, a show over the weekend in Lisbon served as a test audience for a new video for the album track “victimhood” that was directed by Gabríela Friðriksdóttir and Pierre-Alain Giraud. Unlike the elaborate costumes, set designs, and special effects seen in the videos for early singles which helped establish the new record’s universe, the latest clip is an animated fantasy tale that recalls the illustrations of children’s books.
Speaking about the song, co-director Friðriksdóttir shared that she was inspired in part by the dreams the song inspired her to have after immediately connecting with it. “[The song is 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,” she mused. “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 further elaborated on that point: “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.”
She also opined of the video: “I just love this painting so much. These characters are so magical, they just have such deep, deep meaning for me.”
Check out the video below, and listen to Björk and Friðriksdóttir’s full conversation about it here.
