FeKK OFF: Diversity, a proof of quality

That is precisely why premeditated festival selections that increasingly include music videos are so significant. This year’s Tresk uncovers all shades of diversity needed for a breakthrough on the Slovenian scene. We may be talking about no-budget or high-end indie production videos, those that have a hundred or ten thousand views on YouTube, or those that are entirely experimental or a classic mixture of the narrative and the performative. The bottom line is that the criteria of recognition and budget are marginal. Artistic vision can spark up anywhere and the only place for the presentation of such extremes in one section is the festivals that build their selections past commercialism.

Nevertheless, we can come up with a few common characteristics of the Slovenian music videos, as may be noted in the 2021 selection. Still present is the predominant tendency towards the urban culture, particularly its hidden side, even decay. One notices the stress of identity, gender, and body. In order to attract attention, the directors make use of choreography and costumes. A welcoming feature is that such attempts do not merely copy the western production but bravely combine urbanism with approaches that are more experimental.

In addition, another element places the videos of the present selection closer to cinematic discourse than to the trendy and commercial. It is that they contain very little classic performance and if they do, it is most fiercely composed inside the narration or the aesthetics of the video. This beautifully proves that what we have here is not merely a conventional selection of music videos but a collection of authorship in its own right, where the directors’ credits are as important as the music artist. In other words, the visual aspect is as exciting as (if not even more exciting as) the music that has initiated the creation of the video.

Matic Majcen

The videos selected by the Tresk Festival and the past winners of FeKK will be available online on www.bsf.si  for the duration of FeKK 2021.