Video: Julieta Venegas - "Bien o Mal"


House favorite Julieta Venegas is responsible for one of the few current great songs circulating in FM radio, and now one truly mesmerizing video for Otra Cosa’s first single “Bien o Mal.” Mesmerizing for its colossal beauty, reminiscent of Sokurov’s Russian Ark and to a lesser extent, Haas’ Angels and Insects. The clip is directed by Agustin Alberdi, a young director who’s already putting a signature to its creations. He was the director of Babasonicos’ “Pijamas” and “Microdancing”, and if you’ve seen any of them you’ll recognize his touch for craft and his unusual yet intelligent approach to humor; in an almost pastiche scope which pretty much substantiates and embraces the farting butterflies in this video as means of landscape flourishing. Music video is not my favorite audiovisual format, in fact, most of the time I suffer (and over-analyze everything) but for a cinephile music fan, videos as complex as "Bien o Mal" are also beautiful challenges.

Judging from the premise “Chicas Extranas, Pueden Casarse, Tener Hijos, Ser Felices?” and the images themselves, it seems like we’re submerged some kind of paradise where women are doing just fine without men. Although there is representation of the male figure, present with a hipster dude who stands behind the beautiful women and dances chaotically, meaning he is no treat. In this sense, the video bounds on male spectatorship. Offering Julieta’s ownership, a sword and a throne to Facebook's ‘Like’ button. But despite the conditions and romanticized world, we don’t really see smiles until the end, outside that paradise and with a bouncing fragmented screen (and a male voice behind that camera). It’s as if she was negotiating love, in its inter-war and confusing butterfly-stomach state, two different universes, equally confusing... “me gusta encontrar que exista en la vida esta posibilidad, de que todo se de vuelta, cuando no esperaba ya novedad.”