180 The Strand
£15
In April this year a Yung Lean music video went viral. Depicting schoolboys in Leeds, the excellent video shows the rapper as a menacing bully, cigarette dangling from his mouth, as he flushes heads down toilets, gets high in classrooms and rides through corridors on wheely tables. It also features some mesmerising choreography by Damien Jalet. Now this video is on display as part of a film exhibition at 180 Studios.
Created by Gener8ion, a creative duo comprising film director Romain Gavras and producer Surkin (real name Benoit Heitz), Visions of 2034 is promoting an audiovisual album, Love & Tears, made by the pair. It’s also a way for Gavras to show off several of his highly acclaimed music videos, created for the likes of MIA, Jamie xx, Foals frontman Yannis Philippakis and 070 Shake.
So what is the exhibition about? Imagine that it is the year 2034. Gavras and Surkin have created a series of short films (or are they music videos?) that postulate all the terrible things that will be happening in the world: Athens is uninhabitable thanks to toxic algae blooms; volcanoes are erupting; schoolboys are getting high on lithium from 6G antennas and bullying each other from within an inch of their lives.
Gavras and Surkin appear to have predicted the future
In some of these films Gavras and Surkin appear to have predicted the future. In videos shot in 2010, 2018 and 2019, respectively, ICE-style raids round up redheads for social cleansing; an AI-type machine creates a hyperreal replica of Charlize Theron performing infinite emotions, evoking the deepfakes of today; and a militant faction of shaved-headed conspiracy theorists believe the earth to be hollow.
Other things feel more random. It’s not entirely clear how or why the video of the Theron robot – set in a blank, dark room – is set in Mumbai, but apparently it is. There is a singular art installation, created by Surkin, where a wax security guard figure dozes on a chair in front of 10 synthesisers gently pushing out nature sounds. Why?
Other than scaring us all about the future, the more cynical among us might see this exhibition as just a glossy PR exercise for Gener8ion to show off their work. Luckily, the work is good. The whole experience is very cinematic – watching an up-close video of a volcano erupting, the bass rumbling through me, I could almost feel the heat emanating off the molten lava. The show is peppered with horrifying, beautiful and arresting images that will stick in your mind, and some great musical tracks too.
It might not be totally coherent, but on the most basic level Visions of 2034 is an opportunity to see a number of excellent high-concept music videos on a big screen.
