Flickering like a film projector, or the racing of TikTok videos, this highly contemporary video traces the pacing figure of sgs through a train inside a Serbian warehouse. Hard to grasp, aloof, dressed in a gorgeous black leather trench coat and matching gloves he’s an elusive figure that we want to get to know. Apparently, he was “coughed out of the bubbling lavas of Mexico City's Popocatépetl volcano only a year ago, he rose like a phoenix, refreshed and blessed with new resolve.” That natural energy thumps from within, contrasting with the built environment in this video.
Opening with a dive into the volcano, there is a theme of return to the womb but also rebirth in the video. As some may know, sgs has had a past life as a Polish rapper. Yet, his new musical project leaves genre labels strewn across the metaphorical warehouse of sound: warehouse techno, grime, ambient music, industrial noise – all relevant but none defining him. His previous identity is currently anonymous, but this particular track Dancing in Worlds, produced by Lubomir Grzelak, was written on the road in over 20 countries, which begs the question whether sgs is a new more alternative incarnation of a familiar name. Shedding his past, sgs walks as a new man in a new city.
Directed by Hendrik Schneider, known for collaborations with Kelela, LSDXOXO and Shygirl, and creative directed by wctall (sgs) the video is a dizzying fusion of musical futurism and grindhouse cinema. Limited edition Nº13 Dancing in the Words (V), the full title of the music video, takes us on an exciting journey through the train and warehouse. As if scouting out the venue before a rave, curiously tracing his fingers along the roof and lights of the environment sgs is our protagonist and guide. It’s definitely the calm before the storm as this video offers an introduction into the artist’s world.
On the choice of location sgs says, “The choice behind shooting in Serbia is mostly because of my fascination with brutalist architecture. Belgrade specifically is full of pure cold raw concrete monuments ready to be shot, I just love it.”
And on the warehouse, “Well, it was not really about the warehouse, but what’s inside…Scouting locations in Serbia I found an old blue train. This train belonged to Josip Bros Tito, who was the president of the former Yugoslavia. The train is a beautiful luxury item in perfect condition and probably in a different country it would be a fortune a year in tourism being exhibited in some museum, but this one is actually kept in some forgotten warehouse, hidden from the eye and according to the locals - it is like this because the modern Serbian society doesn’t really like the history behind this post-soviet relict.”
Layered images create a sense of distortion and disorientation. Multiple selves of sgs converge as the story unfolds. Abstraction partners the storytelling in the lip sync over the phone that is a rare moment of visual calm. Like the rumbling and movement of magma sgs’ visual world is hard to grasp yet intoxicatingly alive. We want more.
