First published in Nova revija, no. 13/14 1983
A Slovene review for cultural and political issues
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LAIBACH works as a team (the collective spirit),
according to the principle of industrial producation and totalitarianism,
which means that the individual does not speak; the Organization does.
Our work is industrial, our language political.
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LAIBACH analyzes the relation between ideology
and culture in a late phase, presented through art. LAIBACH sublimates
the tension between them and the existing disharmonies (social unrest,
individual frustrations, ideological oppositions) and thus elimina
tes every direct ideological and systematic discursiveness. The very
name and the emblem are visual materializations of the idea on a level
of a cognitive symbol. The name LAIBACH is a suggestion of the actual
possibility of establishing a politicized (sy stem) ideological art
because of the influence of politics and ideology.
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All art is subject to political manipulation (indirectly
- consciousness; directly), except for that which speaks the language
of this same manipulation. To speak in political terms means to reveal
and acknowledge the omnipresence of politics. The role of the most
humane form of politics is the bridging of the gap between reality
and the mobilizing spirit. Ideology takes the place of authentic forms
of social consciousness. The subject in modern society assumes the
role of the politicized subject by ackno wledging these facts. LAIBACH
reveals and expresses the link of politics and ideology with industrial
production and the unbridgeable gaps between this link and the spirit.
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The triumph of anonymity and facelessness has been
intensified to the absolute through a technological process. All individual
differences of the authors are annulled, every trace of individuality
erased. The technological process is a method of programmi ng function.
It represents development; i.e., purposeful change. To isolate a particle
of this process and formit statically means to reveal man's negation
of any kind of evolution which is foreign to and inadequate for his
biological function.
LAIBACH adopts the organizational system of industrial production
and the identification with the ideology as its work method. In accordance
with this, each member personally rejects his individuality, thereby
expressing the relationship between the parti cular form of production
system and ideology and the individual. The form of social production
appears in the manner of production of LAIBACH music itself and the
relations within the group. The group fuctions operationally according
to the principle of r ational transformation, and its (hierarchal)
structure is coherent.
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The internal structure functions on the directive
principle and symbolizes the relation of ideology towards the individual.
The idea is concentrated in one (and the same) person, who is prevented
from any kind of deviation. The quadruple principle acts by the same
key (EBER - SALINGER - KELLER - DACHAUER), which - predestined - conceals
in itself an arbitrary number of sub-objects(depending on the need).
The flexibility of anonymity of the members prevents possible individual
deviations and allows a permanent revitalization of the internal juices
of life. A subject who can identify himself with the extreme position
of contemporary industrial production au tomatically becomes a LAIBACH
member (and is simultaneously condemned for his objectivization).
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The basis of LAIBACH's activity lies in its concept
of unity, which expresses itself in each media according to appropriate
laws (art, music, film...).
The material of LAIBACH manipulation: Taylorism, bruitism, Nazi Kunst,
disco...
The principle of work is totally constructed and the compositional
process is a dictated "ready-made": Industrial production
is rationally developmental, but if we extract from this process the
element of the moment and emphasize it, we also designate to it the
mystical dimension of alienation, which reveals the magical component
of the industrial process. Repression of the industrial ritual is
transformed into a compositional dictate and the politization of sound
can become absolute tonality.
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LAIBACH excludes any evolution of the original
idea; the original concept is not evolutionary but entelechical, and
the presentation is only a link between this static and the changing
determinant unit. We take the same stand towards the direct influence
of tyhe development of music on the LAIBACH concept; of course, this
influence is a material necessity but it is of secondary importance
and appears only as a historical musical foundation of the moment
which, in its choice, is unlimited. LAIBACH expresse s its timelessness
with the artifacts of the present and it is thus necessary that at
the intersection of politics and industrial production (the culture
of art, ideology, consciuosness) it encounters the elements of both,
although it wants to be both. Th is wide range allows LAIBACH to oscillate,
creating the illusion of movement (development).
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LAIBACH practices provocation on the revolted state
of the alienated consciousness (which must necessarily find itself
an enemy) and unites warriors and opponents into an expression of
a static totalitarian scream.
It acts as a creative illusion of strict institutionality, as a social
theater of popular culture, and communicates only through non-communication.
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Besides LAIBACH, which concerns itself with the
manner of industrial production in totalitarianism, there also exists
two other groups in the concept of LAIBACH KUNST aesthetics:
GERMANIA studies the emotional side , which is outlined in relations
to the general ways of emotional, erotic and family life, lauding
the foundations of the state functioning of emotions on the old classicist
form of new social ideologies.
DREIHUNDERT TAUSEND VERSCHIEDENE KRAWALLE is a retrospective futuristic
negative utopia. ( The era of peace has ended.)
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LAIBACH is the knowledge of the universality of
the moment. It is the revelation of the absence of balance between
sex and work, between servitude and activity. It uses all expressions
of history to mark this imbalance. This work is without limit; God
has one face, the devil infinately many.
LAIBACH is the return of action on behalf of the idea.
