Laibach: We Come in Peace
16 November 2012, 20:00 hrs.
Venue: Big Hall at the Palace of Culture, Youth and Sports ‘Boro and Ramizi’, Prishtina
THERE IS NO NEWS LIKE BAD NEWS – EXCEPT WHEN IT'S LAIBACH NEWS!
Stacion - Center for Contemporary art Prishtina presents the first concert of Laibach in Kosova. Laibach was invited to perform and be part of the project ‘Identity Restoration Reloaded’ a project by Stacion - Center for Contemporary art Prishtina.
The band, whose recent European tour included the Monumental Retro-Avant Garde performance at the Tate Modern in London, and the Berghain in Berlin, will soon return to the studio to start work on a box set to be released on Mute. Watch footage from the Tate Modern here: http://youtu.be/Leh-7b3Hcoc
During 2012 Laibach released Iron Sky OST, the original sound track to Iron Sky (directed by Timo Vuorensola), the dark science fiction comedy about Nazis invading earth in 2018, after escaping to the Dark Side of the Moon in 1945. Watch the trailer here: http://youtu.be/Py_IndUbcxc & Under The Iron Sky video here:http://youtu.be/gwJH_vuVDJ4
Laibach was formed on June 1, 1980 in Trbovlje, a mining-industry town, taking the name used during the World War II occupation of Yugoslavia for the city of Ljubljana. At the time, the group collaborated with art groups Irwin (painting) and Crveni Pilot (theatre). Since its formation, the group had been preparing their first multimedia project "Rdeči revirji" ("Red District"), aiming to provoke the current political structures in Trbovje. The performance was banned before its opening due to its "improper and irresponsible" usage of Malevich's black crosses as symbols on the posters, causing a lot of negative reactions in the media and public. The group's visual style at this earliest stage focused mainly on miners iconography, but in time, they included other symbols as well:Triglav, deer horns and the Malevich's black cross rounded with a gear.
The visual imagery of Laibach's art (or 'Laibach Kunst', as it calls itself) has been described as 'radically ambiguous', An early example of this ambiguity would be the woodcut entitled 'The Thrower,' also known as Metalec ("The Metal Worker"). This work features a monochrome silhouette of a figure with a clenched fist holding a hammer. The work could be seen by its original Slovene viewers as a poster promoting industrial protest, but the poster could have also been interpreted as a symbol of industrial pride. Another aspect of this woodcut is the large typefaced word 'LAIBACH', evoking memories of the Nazi occupation of Slovenia (when the capital city was briefly known as Laibach). This piece was featured prominently during a TV interview of Laibach in 1983, during which the interviewer Jure Pengov called Laibach "enemies of the people."
Laibach has frequently been accused of both far left and far right political stances due to their use of uniforms and totalitarian-style aesthetics. They were also accused of being members of the neo-nationalism movement, which reincarnates modern ideas of nationalism. When confronted with such accusations, Laibach are quoted as replying with the ambiguous response "We are fascists as much as Hitler was a painter".
The members of Laibach are notorious for rarely stepping out of character. Some releases feature artwork by the Communist and early Dada artist/satirist, John Heartfield. Laibach concerts have sometimes aesthetically appeared as political rallies. When interviewed, they answer in wry manifestos, showing a paradoxical lust for, and condemnation of, authority.
Richard Wolfson wrote of the group:
“Laibach's method is extremely simple, effective and horribly open to misinterpretation. First of all, they absorb the mannerisms of the enemy, adopting all the seductive trappings and symbols of state power, and then they exaggerate everything to the edge of parody... Next they turn their focus to highly charged issues — the West's fear of immigrants from Eastern Europe, the power games of the EU, the analogies between Western democracy and totalitarianism.
Get ready!