First TV appearance

On 23rd of June 1983 Laibach gave this incriminated interview in a Slovenian (cultural and political) TV show called "TV Tednik" ("TV Weekly"), dressed in military uniforms. The host and director of the show was Mr. Jure Pengov (who still works for the TV today, contributing with journalistic reports from around the world). This interview was one of the main reasons the group was banned soon after banned. Recently, 15 years later, this very interview was on display at the exhibition in The Modern Gallery of Ljubljana as one of the perfect examples of body art and performance culture.

PENGOV: So far you have been spreading your ideology, your ideological provocation in writing and on the rare public appearances. Was your decision to acquaint some 600,000 to 700,000 members of the public with your ideology by appearing on TV in any way difficult?

LAIBACH: Apart from the educational system, television has the leading role in the formation of uniform opinions. The medium is centralised, with one "transmitter" and a number of "receivers", while communication between these is impossible. Being aware of the manipulative capacities the media possess, Laibach is exploiting the repressive power of media information. In the present case, it is the TV screen.

PENGOV: You have assumed the role of "Public Enemy No. 1" in a masochistic way as the proverbial sacrifice, while the number of your true followers, or at least fans, is very questionable. In fact, what exactly caused one of your leaders commit suicide? Was he crushed by the gap between the idea and its alienation from the people, the masses?

LAIBACH: Art is noble mission that demands fanaticism, and Laibach is an organism whose goals, life and means are higher - in their power and duration – than the goals, lives and means of its individual members.

PENGOV: What then is your opinion of Edvard Kardelj's* brilliant idea that neither the State nor the System nor the Party can bring happiness to a person – that one creates one's own fortune?

LAIBACH: Not the State, not the Party, not God, and not Satan; happines lies in the total denial of one's human identity, in people consciously waiving their personal tastes, beliefs, judgments, in their free depersonalisation, in their ability to make sacrifices, to identify themselves with a higher, superior system, with the masses, the collective, the ideology.

PENGOV: Can you tell us anything about yourselves? For instance, who you are, what your professional occupations are, how old you are; are you all here or are there more of you?

LAIBACH: We are the children of spirit and the brothers of strength,
Whose promises are unfulfilled.
We are the black phantoms of this world,
We sing the mad image of woe.
We are The First TV Generation.

PENGOV(off): If I understand you correctly - you use TV for your challenge; O.K., so do we, and I hope this show will finally make people react and put a stop, right here, in the middle of Ljubljana, to these dangerous ideas and terrifying acts.

*Edvard Kardelj - closest collaborator of Josip Broz Tito, top party politician and leading advocate of workers' popular but deeply ineffective organisational system of "self - management".