Climbing the staircase in a London housing estate turns into a sisyphean task for music duo Febueder in their new music video, Hans.
Director Lexi Kiddo set the film in Bevin Court – designed by Berthold Lubetkin and completed in 1954 – after stumbling across the Modernist block on a location scout.
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‘I instantly knew I wanted to shoot something there,’ he says. ‘I learned more about the building later on and the constructivist staircase that Lubetkin designed as the heart of the building. I often saw art and architecture students come in and take pictures.’
Kiddo borrowed from the myth of Sisyphus for the film’s story, which follows singer Kieran Godfrey as he carries a boulder up the Grade II-listed building’s distinctive stairs – set within a circular aperture that allows views all the way to the top and bottom of the building. The steps were designed as a single grand staircase to save money, and connect all three wings of the building.
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‘Lubetkin’s design, with the dominating staircase and lack of balconies, helped to support and enhance the story in an incredible way,’ adds the director. ‘The setting is quite disorienting and feels like a loop – almost like an Escher painting, it doesn’t feel real.’
Bevin Court was extensively restored in 2016, and the underneath of the stairs painted back to their original red.
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