Earlier this month, Jay Z invited numerous people from music (Fab Five Freddy), film (Judd Apatow, Jim Jarmusch), TV (Michael K. Williams, Jemima Kirke) and art (Marina Abramovic) to take part in the filming of a video for his song "Picasso Baby." The video was based on performance art, which involved him rapping for six hours and interacting with the crowd at the Pace Gallery. Now, after seeing numerous photos and Vines, here's what director Mark Romanek cut down from 30 hours of film his crew shot:
Romanek told IndieWire that Jay Z asked him to do the video for "Picasso Baby" (Romanek directed the video for "99 Problems"):
My reaction was, I definitely want to work with Jay-Z. It's very exciting. And something about making a 'music video' in a traditional sense, didn't seem very interesting to me. The song name-checks a lot of fine artists and I thought, what could we do with that fine art world that isn't a traditional musical video but is part of the zeitgeist—something unpredictable and [that] utilizes social media? I didn't want it to be a hermetically sealed experience.
The idea of performance art came to mind. I was aware of Marina Abramovic's Artist is Present, even though I was in London shooting 'Never Let Me Go' and didn't get to go. And the idea that Jay-Z regularly performs to 60,000 people at a time, I thought, 'What about performing at one person at a time?' He absolutely loved it. He interrupted me and said, 'Hold on! I've got chills. That idea is perfect.' He thinks, like me, that the music video has had its era. I also wanted to make sure we had Marina's blessing. So she attended the event and took part in the event. She couldn't have been more happy or enthusiastic about us using her concept and pushing it forward.
In the interview before the "Picasso Baby" video, Jay Z points out, "Concerts are pretty much performance art. The venues change."
