Spain’s shadowy new indie record label clan La Vendición is getting serious about presenting its artists in packages that will bring their work to the largest audience possible. This week’s “Obra de Arte” combines two of the fiercest females from the crew’s Barcelona orbit, CGI savant Zora Jones of last year’s intriguing 100 Ladies EP and La Zowi (also spelled “La Zowie”), a Spanish trap artist whose previous credits have included last year’s “Raxeta” and “El Chulo,” released earlier this month with Lorena B.
“For me, art is the expression of a feeling,” says La Zowi, speaking to Remezcla about the release. “An attitude, for example, can be art.” In the Kokos Ackee-directed video for “Obra de Arte,” the performer presents a good argument to this effect. She sits on a throne with her characteristic stoicism, pledging her devotion to art. The camera dies for her. Square cut acrylics, delicious lamé, and a slightly messy lip look confirming that sometimes, personal presentation can evoke a feel.
Jones doesn’t make an appearance in the visuals, unless you count the aesthetic connection. “Obra de Arte” was structured by Ackee (a force in the Spanish-speaking indie world who’s worked with PXXR GVNG, Tomasa del Real, and Somadamantina), Oscar Boronat, and 3-D expert David Ros to feature lots of liquid metal, a personal favorite of the special effects-oriented Fractal Fantasy duo that Jones forms with partner Sinjin Hawke. The two once had to let go of their dream to feature a vat of actual ferrofluid in a video when they found out it would be wildly expensive — they also wound up digitally creating the effect.
La Zowi was down to talk about the important role that the newly created La Vendición plays in helping to build her own career, which she says she’s currently taking more seriously than ever before (“but never too seriously.”) “There has never been a label in Spain that offers you that,” she says. “To the contrary, they devote themselves to appropriating your music, leaving the artist in the background.” When asked what she thought the label’s effect would be as the Spanish trap world turns, she didn’t mess around with the answer: “massive destruction.”
“We’re something different, a movement of people who are trying to transmit a feeling, our art,” she says. “We all grew up in the streets and we work with the rules of the street.”
To celebrate the release of her latest video, La Zowi curated an exclusive Apple Music playlist for us. Stream her picks below.