LAIBACH
Internationally well known Slovenian provocateurs, a band and cross-media collective Laibach was founded in 1980 in the industrial mining town Trbovlje (members are Eber, Saliger, Dachauer and Keller). The German name (standing for the capital city of Ljubljana), as well as the group’s militaristic self-stylisation, propagandist manifestos and totalitarian statements has raised many debates on their actual artistic and political positioning. Many theorists, among them famous Slovenian philosopher Slavoj Žižek, have discussed the Laibach-phenomenon both from an analytical as well as critical cultural point of view. The main elements of Laibach’s varied practices are strong references to avant-garde, nazi-kunst and socialist realism (in their production of painting and graphic art), de-individualisation in their public performance as anonymous quartet dressed in uniforms, conceptual proclamations, and forceful sonic stage performances - mostly labelled as industrial pop music. Laibach is practicing collective work, dismantling individual authorship, and establishing the principle of hyper-identification. Laibach invented and early defined the - now already historic - term (monumental) ‘retro-avant-garde’ and creatively questioned artistic ‚quotation’, appropriation, copyright and copy-left. Starting out as both an art and music collective, Laibach became internationally renowned in the music scene, especially with their violating cover-versions of hits by Queen, the Stones, the Beatles, etc.
After being officially forbidden by political decree in 1984 the group formed NSK (Neue Slowenische Kunst 1984 – 1992), a non-formal organisation and aesthetic movement. This led to the establishment of a strong platform for cultural activity within the climate of liberalisation and pluralisation in former Yugoslavia and wider. NSK existed as a movement till 1992 and later modified itself into a virtual NSK State in time.
Laibach are highly influential within general cultural-political scene in Slovenia and abroad and are one of the best-known Slovenian brands of all times. They have performed numerous concerts all around the world and released 20 albums up to date, with their album Opus Dei, released by the renowned British music label Mute Records, appearing in the selection of most important music albums in the world (1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die, Cassell Illustrated, 2005) and recognised by influential British Classic Rock Magazine as one of the best five albums of all times within the industrial rock genre. Laibach’s concert in Trbovlje Power Station in December 1990 was proclaimed by specialised British music magazine Wire as one of the “60 most dangerous concerts of all times”, while their recent project LAIBACHKUNSTDERFUGE was voted by Artforum as one of the ten best art events of 2009.
Books were written and feature films were made about the group and Laibach’s music was also used in films (Spiderman, Blair Witch Project, Herr Lehmann, Die Jungfrauenmaschine, Iron Sky), TV series (Alias) and in diverse theatre productions (Macbeth, Baptism, etc.).
After the break-up of Yugoslavia Laibach continued to work mostly within the realm of popular music, while remaining a point of reference in terms of artistic cultural criticism. During recent years the group underwent an international re-evaluation of their artistic practice in the course of an emergence of post-structuralist views on worldwide conceptual art production.
Although best known as avant-garde musical provocateurs, Laibach originally began life as an artist’s collective, whose early multi-media work encompassed painting and printmaking alongside music, video, film, and performance. In 2009 Laibach thus presented their long awaited retrospective exhibition in Łodz Sztuki Museum of Modern Art in Poland. The exhibition was nominated as one of the best 10 art events in Poland in 2009. In 2010 Ljubljana’s International Art and Graphic Centre presented historic overview of the first ten years of the group, titled GESAMTKUNST LAIBACH, 1980 – 1990. In September same year Laibach returned to their hometown Trbovlje, to create a four days event (exhibition, concerts and symposium) with the title RED DISTRICT + BLACK CROSS, 1980 – 2010 in Delavski Dom Trbovlje. In 2011 Laibach staged another two extensive exhibitions of their works, one in Maribor’s UGM and one in Zagreb’s HDLU pavilion.
The group lives in Ljubljana and working on variety of different projects, from electronic experiments to experimental industrial jazz (VOLKSWAGNER), film and theatre music, currently preparing new records to be released in 2012.
End of March 2012 Laibach is starting with their WE COME IN PEACE tour, supporting the Iron Sky film and album release.
