on Vimeo.
Fear and loathing in Siberia through the eyes of a rap video collective
Videographer Yaroslav Prohozhyi started EFIR: Tapes in 2016 when he started documenting the nightlife and subcultures of the Siberian city of Krasnoyarsk. Today, the collective creates haunting music videos for a new generation of Russian rappers.
Relying on fast editing and sharp cuts, the team portray a world where the breathtaking natural environment — Krasnoyarsk sits on the shores of the mighty Yenisei river, and is surrounded by mountains — and social despair collide. In this music video for local hip-hop artist XADJO, shot in Krasnoyarsk in 2017, kaleidoscopic sunrises and sunsets blend with stray dogs, badlands, and Russia’s ubiquitous high-rises. Ultra-slow motion clips also show a young woman underwater in a possible nod to Bill Viola’s video art — while also encouraging viewers to sink into EFIR: Tapes’s whirlpool of images and landscapes.
This aestheticised take on social disaster has become the crew’s signature, and soon secured collaborations with bigger hip-hop artists from beyond the region. Check out the team’s Vimeo page to dip into visual art with an almost primordial sense of rage.
