LIQUID SLOW is the new music video from the collaboration between german techno
legend Chris Liebing, uprising belgian techno star Charlotte de Witte and brazilian director
Fernando Nogari. It tells a nonnormative love story between two outsiders struggling to
survive under absurd circumstances. Inspired by the dance marathons held during the Great
Depression, it’s set up in a dystopian near future where a girl’s only option to pay her lover’s
debt and save his life is to compete in an underground marathon where contestants dance
until they die.
Shot by swedish D.O.P Erik Henriksson, who has worked on music videos for Beyoncé , The
Weekend and Young Lean , the video was shot entirely in São Paulo, directed by Fernando
Nogari and produced by Iconoclast.
DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT
“When I first heard Liebing and de Witte’s track, the first thing that caught my imagination,
beside its haunting atmospheric quality, was the minimalist words repeated throughout.
Even though her voice is steady and calm it brought me a sense of surveillance and control.
It made me think of the quiet oppression we live under nowadays when even the smallest
and simplest things are turned into consumption and profit. Like the act of dancing. The
nightmarish quality of the song reminded of Jonathan Crary “ 24/7: Late Capitalism and the
Ends of Sleep ”. He states that capitalism pushed us into constant activity, eroding all forms of
community and political expression. He states that human sleep is our last barrier, since it
points to a collective refusal of world-destroying patterns of growth and accumulation. But
what if our dreams get polluted by this constant oppression and end up becoming
nightmares?
The track repetitive rhythm strangely reminded of Sydney Pollack's “ They Shoot Horses Don’t
They? ” The idea of a dystopian dance marathon felt like a metaphor for Brazil nowadays
where unprivileged groups have to struggle and compete against each other until exhaustion
in order to survive in a system deprived of humanity. Endangered by the short-sighted
behavior of the rich man in power, their only option to survive is to fight. Like the main
character in the video, being watched by people who bet against her, she must resist her
bodily exhaustion and keep dancing until everyone else is on the ground. The subtle smile on
her face at the end is a reminder that, no matter how oppressed we are, our capacity to love
and dream is what will saves us.”
