Illumination / Mehr Licht

This text is based on addresses given at Vila Bled, 7th September 2003 and at the Knjigarna konzorcij bookshop, Ljubljana, 9th September 2003.

by Alexei Monroe

This all began twenty-three years ago, in Trbovlje when posters briefly appeared with a black cross and the word "Laibach". No-one then could have imagined we would be here today, presenting this but in the end time always catches up with itself. What would the former resident of this place have made of this gathering and his place on the cover of the book? Perhaps the situation seems even stranger because this book is not by a Slovene author. What right does a foreign author have to come here and present your history? The same right that Laibach and NSK had to respond to the cultures and symbols that intruded on their space. These artists took for themselves a right to reply to the elements of their reality they found themselves confronted by - to Western and British pop on the radio, Tito's face in every building, to the ubiquity of ideology. Part of this response meant returning to the sources of these elements. To penetrate the heart of the pop machine Laibach came to London and signed to a British record label. So perhaps it's only natural for someone from Britain to respond in turn to the incursion of Laibach into the British cultural space. This book is my response to Laibach's response, a reaction of the same type to a "foreign" element that becomes part of the host reality.

I'm aware that even the name Neue Slowensiche Kunst may still be a source of pain or dismay for some in Slovenia but I'm not asking (and neither are NSK) such people to like or accept these works. What I do say is that NSK should be recognised as a holistic view of the archetypes and motifs that seem to underlie Slovene history. I also suggest that this cultural phenomenon is one of European and Global significance, which encapsulates the history of its time. Critics of NSK should not underestimate the number of people who have come here to Slovenia or know that it is not the same place as Slovakia only because of the New Slovene Art we are discussing.

The book isn't a history but an interrogation of the subject. It's not fun and it’s not funky, no-one is spared the implications, even if it will take years for these to emerge. The process was never going to be easy and nor is this book but it’s said that nothing worthwhile ever is. It doesn't try to repress the noise and confusion that generated NSK’s responses and which structure them. Rather than "tell the story" from start to finish it deals with the most dramatic, complex and archetypal aspects of Laibach and NSK. So besides exploring the sources, methods and techniques, chapters deal with themes such as the national question, the state, performance and music, the archetypes underlying their work. In each case the most illuminating examples were selected for what they could reveal of the processes and their contexts.

What the book does not do is deliver what so many people seem to want of NSK. Even after 23 years of activity Laibach particularly still face the demand to reveal where they "really" stand, what it’s "really" all about. What lies behind this effectively totalitarian demand is the wish for a final solution. Once the subject is finally defined it can be neutralised and disposed of. Accepting that “Life is Life” actually means accepting the contradictions and paradoxes that structure us and being suspicious of the desire for a final solution.

The title, "Plural Monolith", embodies one of the key forces behind NSK, paradox. It draws attention to the fact that what seems monolithic and uniform is extremely diverse and plural, composed of a huge range of dissonant, shifting sources. Even at its most monolithic the process remains plural and in motion, a still-active compulsion to explore to the limits. Yet this plurality is what makes it seem to be what people want to believe it is. The book is not so much about what NSK "really" is but about how it comes to seem to be what people want to believe it is. It tries to re-construct the scene of the crimes against good taste and common sense NSK are still accused of. What was the context that meant Laibach could seem fascistic whilst simultaneously quoting pop art, Kardelj, Mick Jagger or Slovene folklore? At times one of the elements predominates but the others are always present and in a sense it is the contradictory elements that guarantee the apparent consistency of the whole, the integrity of the dangerous illusion that sows doubt and confusion. The book then is about the elements and forces underlying everything from the Trbovlje posters to WAT, to my response and the point is to discover what constitutes the illusion, why it has such power and why it means so much both to friends and enemies.

Illumination dwells at the obscure levels where myths are destroyed and created - if you can catch glimpses of this level of reality you can begin to understand [art, politics, life, the universe and everything], precisely through going into this "darkness". Try to imagine the weight of leaving unexplored the "mad tale of woe" Laibach have had to tell. If you deny or close off such oppressive material, it only becomes heavier and more oppressive. The way to illumination is through this adversity, exploring the deepest levels. Such knowledge is hard-fought and has a price but it is a way to a kind of illumination. Understanding brings power and following the law of contradiction dark light can illuminate. When you follow the NSK trajectory so many hidden connections become apparent and if you follow the logic of these connections much becomes clear. Witness the operation of NSK's mechanisms, symbols, and processes and you witness the concealed threats and meanings of the sources they quote plus the mechanisms of the regimes that structure life. The value of illuminating subjects such as art, war, the state and propaganda should be clear as should be the fact that the book has to be about much more than "just" NSK. Knowledge brings empowerment as well as suffering.

NSK's method is a type of mystifying de-mystification that preserves the need to struggle against the evil of banality and to retain something beyond the everyday. Not everyone wants or welcomes knowledge, it tests and it burns, some prefer ignorance and this is not for them. To write of music as more than music is a particular crime. Ignorance is bliss for so many and these days dumbing- down is a career move but this is only makes it more vital to move in the opposite direction. NSK works represent a type of compulsory "dumbing up", overtly and covertly enforcing knowledge of complexity and connectivity. This is what Laibach alluded to in its Apologija - "The Explanation is the Whip and You Bleed!" It seems to me that NSK offer a choice - use and try to enjoy the contradiction, dissonance and alienation that form an inescapable part of the totality of life or suffer from it.

I should finish with a warning. Do not make the same Fukuyaman mistake that has been made so often. When the old system collapsed it was said that NSK's work was done and it is also being said that this book, in placing its subject into history, represents an ending. Yet in fact the game is not over, "Das Spiel ist nicht Aus." Even when there are no more releases and silence seems to fall the NSK story will be far from over and its posthumous career and influence will continue for some time. For as long as art, war and states exist so will the harsh need for an NSK type mode of painful, fascinating illumination. People encountering the works or this text in the future will continue to regenerate their own meanings and the text is not about drawing a line but about proliferating meaning. People are already coming to me with their stories, interpretations and experiences of NSK, which will appear as the text grows into other language editions and its scope widens.

This is the end of one chapter and the beginning of another. The sword borne by the Marshal in the illustration is passed on to the readers, to use to cut through the darkness of ignorance, fear and mediocrity. The fate of the book now lies with the readers those who will proliferate its meaning, to what ends we can't predict. And so as someone else once said - "Let a Thousand Flowers Bloom!"