Peter Mlakar: NSK's Satanic Technocrat

By Michael Moynihan and Charles Krafft

Since 1980 the Slovenian musical juggernaut known as Laibach has been craftily exposing -- while at the same time capitalizing upon -- the weaknesses of pop culture for totalitarianism. Utilizing stylistic trappings from a half-century earlier, Laibach (whose name comes from the occupied German designation for their hometown of Ljubljana) marched onto the world stage and demanded that people take notice. And they did.

But what still often remains unrecognized or misunderstood is the fact that Laibach is just one cogwheel in a greater machine, otherwise known as NSK. Short for Neue Slowenische Kunst (New Slovenian Art), NSK is a collective endeavor with an array of tentacles: a fine art group known as IRWIN, a "cosmo-kinetical" theater company called Noordung, the New Kollectivism graphic design section, and most intriguingly, a Department of Pure and Practical Philosophy. Furthermore, since 1990 NSK has declared themselves a sovereign, virtual state, or in their words a "transglobal borderless state-in-time." They issue their own stamps, passports, and proclamations, and open temporary embassies wherever they go.

The spokesman for the philosophical branch of NSK is Peter Mlakar, an actor, professional orator, and occasional pornographic storyteller. For years he has spoken at the openings of Laibach concerts and other important NSK events; a decade ago his early speeches were compiled into book form in REDEN AN DIE DEUTSCHE NATION (Speeches to the German Nation; Vienna: Verlag Turia & Kant, 1993). He has also published two philosophical works in the Slovenian language, SPISI O NADNARAVNEM (Essays on the Supernatural; Ljubljana: Analecta, 1992) and UVOD V BOGA (An Introduction to God; Ljubljana: Zalozba NSK, 1992). As one might expect, Mlakar's style is declarative and bombastic, but his form of rhetoric also illuminates existential conundrums of the sort that most people prefer not to be confronted with. In response to Essays on the Supernatural, a well-known Slovenian Catholic philosopher remarked that such a work "cannot be opposed with counter-argument, but only with prayer and fasting."

When not composing speeches or philosophical tracts, Peter Mlakar also pens perverse erotic tales under the name "P. Traven." Two books of these stories -- which bear titles like Confession, Crime and Punishment, and Living Bidet -- have appeared in his native language, earning him accolades as the "De Sade of Slovenian literature." Slavoj Zizek, the popular Lacanian philosopher, even extolled these writings as "Great literature for all time, which should be lectured in primary schools."

"Peter Paracelsus" is another of Mlakar's many names. When donning his Paracelsian cap he promotes "Satanic Techno" and in 1994 released an eponymous debut CD (on the Nika + Ropot label), done in collaboration with the Laibach subgroup 300,000 V.K. A new album is reported to be imminent. The music is electronic and Luciferian, but also embodies an entire philosophy:

"Satanic Techno is that state when the pain or pleasure [of human experience] are no longer submitted to a process of their own natural determination, but are a matter of the will of the scientific mind, which is able solely for its own enjoyment to manage the psychological structure and has an effect on it independently of the subject's will, and which also abolishes a cast-iron law of nature.
In a manner not dissimilar from Laibach, Peter Paracelsus subverts a pop genre to his own ends, injecting it with an overt ideology, in contrast to the insidious but covert commodity fetishizing of most music industry output."

The following interview with Herr Mlakar was assisted by Charles Krafft, an American artist from Seattle with longstanding ties with the NSK camp. Krafft has made his mark with DISASTERWARE™, a line of finely-wrought delftware commemorative plates featuring poignant scenes from humanity's unending history of turmoil and distress. His work so impressed NSK that they commissioned Krafft to design all the porcelain flatware for their official state functions (these works, along with Krafft's Porcelain War Museum Project and other creations, are documented in the new monograph Charles Krafft's VILLADELIRIUM, San Francisco: Last Gasp, 2002). By way of concluding this introduction to our interview, a few lines of reminiscence from Krafft will shed further light on our subject:

I first ran across the writings of Peter Mlakar in the extraordinary artbook Neue Slowenische Kunst (Los Angeles: Amok, 1991). Those dated translations of his short essays, aphorisms, edicts, and speeches re-ignited my waning interest in poetry. Years later, I still find myself copying and sending these bits out to persons who I feel can appreciate the subtlety of Mlakar's metaphysics and "totalitarian" balderdash. I am still waiting for translators to deliver his two major books (published in German and Slovenian) on Eros and spirituality. To date, my efforts to facilitate this here have been met with academic outrage. I got to know Peter Mlakar personally when I accompanied Laibach on their "Occupied Europe NATO Tour" to Sarajevo in l995. For an American to fully understand Laibach and the NSK enterprise you must spend some time with them and this I naively did. The highway to Sarajevo was being held by Serbs so we drove along the bombed-out back roads, through devastated Mostar, down into the besieged city for two historical concerts in the National Theatre which happened to coincide with the announcement of the Dayton Peace Accords. It was the rock 'n' roll experience of a lifetime and Peter rose to the occasion with a series of official speeches delivered with his usual panache. One night, on the way back to our guest house overlooking the burned-out l984 Winter Olympics facility, the taxi couldn't make it up the icy hill so we climbed out and started walking home. Halfway there he stopped in the full moonlight to access the ruined city and declared, "I love the smell of blood and snow! It's so Tolstoy. If I could bottle this scent I would make a new perfume for the 21st century and call it "FORGIVENESS."

What events led to your becoming a prominent figure in the NSK Dept. of Pure and Practical Philosophy?

The Department of Pure and Practical Philosophy (DPPP) was established in Hamburg, Germany in l987. I was performing with Laibach there in a production of Shakespeare's Macbeth. As a result of our presence many philosophical issues emerged along with the need for a special philosophical department to address them. Laibach develops its own philosophy, but there are subjects which are not completely expressed in the language of this philosophy, and there arose a need to articulate the essence of the Laibach and NSK spirit in a more theoretical way. In this sense I can say that my "prominent role" is to explore the issues which emanate from the substance of Laibach and NSK in relation to classical theoretical and philosophical problems and their anomalies.

What are the greatest philosophical problems facing mankind today?

Among them, if anything is certain at all: what is the ultimate criterion of truth and certainty? Why is nothing better than anything (the reverse form of the most important question in metaphysics)? Is Being - which is "difference from that" (as Heidegger puts the form of ontological difference) - the only inhabitant in its dark country, or are there some other monsters beside it, which are not known yet, except for Nothing, or whatever supports it? Is there the One, or only a mass of particulars? And there's the question of the substantiality of mind: is the mind only a matter of symbols, words, denotations, language, logical operations, biochemical processes? Also, we have the problem of the ontological value of logic: does the existence of the natural order of things lead to a deeper essence of reality (as Whitehead asks)? And there is the question of the sense of life - in other words, is there anything in life besides its finite chemo-biological structure? Then, we also have the question of God: does he exist or not, and do existence and non-existence have anything to do with him? The meaning and absurdity of evil is another dilemma. Furthermore, does the technological development of man, his structural changes in body (via biotechnology and genetics) and mind (via artificial intelligence)- that is to say, the man-made construction of the human being and his consciousness - negate the basic philosophical and theological categories of God, mind, soul, and the Self? Finally, there is the question of the existence of the external world (and this is linked to the problem of virtual reality).

Does the DPPP offer suggestions on how such problems might be reconciled or solved?

The Department tries to investigate them, it searches for the answers, and it offers some answers that at the moment are to a larger extent about God, evil, and the infinite. But there are many epistemological and logical questions generally open to exploration, as well as those concerning certainty, and the different criteria of truth, which are some of the topics of our future work.

What role does this particular Department play within the totality of NSK?

The model is similar to that of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in the Vatican. As I said, the prime role of the DPPP within NSK is to operate professionally on issues which form the ontological basis of NSK, and which also create the objects that excite NSK most. These issues are the dialectic between eternity and death, enjoyment and evil, God and sex, the absolute and nothingness, the ethical and non-ethical, metaphysics through psychoanalysis, psychoanalysis through metaphysics and absurdity.

Can you define or give brief statements of what some of these terms you just used mean to you or the DPPP?

Death: Death is something bad because we experience the state of life as, first, a libidinal demand itself, and second, as a libidinal attachment to the Other. That means - in both cases - the manifestation of the pleasure principle. But in the magnetic field of the absolute, death is only an argument for its omniscience. There must be death if we can speak of something that is undefeatable. When we say everything is contingent, uncertain, and rotten; when we say at the end there is nothing - we've hit on a real winner which is not death, but its (the absolute's) own enjoyment. Evil: Is there the possibility of everlasting pain? Can we experience this? If evil is the final cause, if there is nothing stronger than evil, we better finish our world right now. The existence of evil, in its essence, is the strongest argument, as I said, of the indefiniteness and boundlessness of God - that is of the absolute. Absurdity: Let's ask in Leibniz's manner: how is absurdity possible? Absurdity is possible if there is a ground for its existence. The ground negates absurdity, but the problem is that even in this case some absurdity remains, which creates neurotic symptoms and signs of hopelessness. God: Our statement is totalitaristic: if God does not exist, this non-existence is not a part of God. Even if God is manifest to us as non-existent, we cannot say that he does not exist. God as the absolute reveals that complete negation is possible, that total traumatization is possible (i.e., the death of God). We perceive God as "something" beyond being and non-being. Ethics: Goodness is external to ourselves. To be eaten by the Other. Freedom is slavery. This is hard to comprehend and is connected to suffering, but guarantees blessedness. The Metaphysical: The empirical is not the only criterion of reality, not even the logical and mathematical truths. The metaphysical is something which does not exist in the concrete world, but we cannot say that it is unreal, wrong, senseless. The facts of this world are not the only view from its eyes.

It would seem that NSK has always been very concerned with other issues, such as that of the relationship between the state and the individual, totalitarianism and the "free" world, art and the state, and the deliberate fabrication of culture. Can you comment on some of these issues from the perspective of the DPPP?

In relation to the other NSK views on these topics, the DPPP view is mostly identical. In the relationship between individuality, totalitarianism and the "free world," our position is that freedom is the freedom of those who think alike.

Does the DPPP attempt to document or explain the philosophy behind NSK activities, or rather direct them as they unfold?

The DPPP theory or philosophy is not the official philosophy of the whole NSK as an institution or a virtual state. It is a self-sufficient segment inside the NSK and its doesn't completely envelop the theoretical ground and possible philosophical statements of other NSK departments. In the spiritual sense of a polyvergent approach of one to another, it develops the material, which cannot, therefore, be negated by other NSK groups. There is always an enigma of a total enveloping, but this enigma shows us how we are different and simultaneously connected in the infinite. NSK is often accused of having a totalitarian agenda itself.

Does the DPPP look at the world "through totalitarian eyes" or does it simply comment upon - and, when appropriate, utilize - totalitarian methods?

Yes, we look at the world through totalitarian eyes. This is the form of the highest law of thinking, which must be totalitarian if it is to be consistent with itself. It should be stressed that we are more interested in the theoretical and spiritual, rather than the political and historical, meanings of this word.

Does the DPPP see the conflict between the individual and the totalitarian or authoritarian state to be a moral issue?

Absolutely.

Does morality exist in a real sense, or is it rather, as Nietzsche observed, simply a tool of control?

It does exist, but in a more strict spiritual or theoretical sense. When we read De Sade, Nietzsche is like a child. Nietzsche does not reflect the consequences of Justine, Juliet, and Sodom & Co.'s universe of good and evil.

Do good and evil really exist - and if so, in what way?

If you think that they do not, you are really a happy man. If they do exist, they constitute the world, life.

How has the philosophy of NSK attempted to move from the theoretical level to the practical or applied level?

The practical philosophy of NSK occupies the field which is more concrete, more sensual, more realistic, but also more metaphorical. It occupies the work, which in a not-so-abstract way shows the public the basic problems of our life (and non-life).

What have been the most significant examples of the DPPP's work?

There are a few works which establish context and meaning in the sense of the Department's existence. First I must mention the Department's participation in the Neue Slowenische Kunst book, then there are three other books: Essays on the Supernatural, Reden an die deutsche Nation (Speeches to the German Nation; published in German language in Vienna), and An Introduction to God. Inside this book there is a lecture titled "German Sex Discipline and God's Face" which was delivered in Berlin in l993, inside NSKSTAAT BERLIN. There have also been many speeches given at Laibach concerts and other NSK events all over Europe and America (Berlin, Vienna, Sarajevo, Belgrade, Glasgow, New York, Turin, Dresden, Suhl, and Luther's town of Eisleben). The CD recordings by Peter Paracelsus, which have established a"Satanic Techno" style of pop music, are also an aspect of our work.

What is the impulse behind the creation of the Peter Paracelsus project?

The sexual power of healing.

How is Satanic Techno different from other forms of such music?

Satanic Techno is techno music, which besides furious rhythm and melody, contains the message of therapeutic effects through traumatic method. Paradox as a beneficial pill.

Does Peter Paracelsus believe in Satan - and God?

There is no Satan beside God in his definition of the absolute. That means there are not two gods. Peter Paracelsus believes in God, but also in Satan as an evil spirit. This spirit is connected with the touch of mortal flesh and its passion for perfection. Satan means to be equal with God in his attribute of ultimate enjoyment, which for terminal human beings is unbearable. This, however, must also be said: the existence of Satan is possible on the grounds of God's essence as love and our free will; God allows something which limits him in his freedom - something that sets itself up as his opposition and then transcends this limitation, and out of this negation, re-constitutes itself as the absolute. This limitation, this pain (the death of God), this perfect evil, is the deepest mysterium of God, which only establishes the absolute - God.