What Is NSK?

Reprinted From The First NSK Bulletin, 1994

Very often, basic information on what NSK is, when it was founded, what the NSK and Laibach philosophies are, and the like are required. To put it in a nutshell, NSK is in its structure a simple and yet complex mechanism which makes any precise explanation in a few words practically impossible. NSK began operating in 1984 as a large collective, a union of various groups brought together by their shared way of thinking and a similar way of expression through different media. The main NSK groups are: Laibach, Irwin, Noordung, New Collectivism Studio and the Department of Pure and Applied Philosophy, while there is a number of flexible subdivisions which emerge as the need arises and disolve under their own inertia. Each of the groups primarily works within its medium, nevertheless their bonds are firm and fruitful. Members of the groups meet on a regular basis, they talk, discuss and plan major common campaigns, test aesthetic and other preferences, exchange ideas and contexts, travel together, etc.

Laibach began working in 1980 and was mainly oriented to popular music, although it associated different levels of work from the beginning, including gallery and theater installations. The resume and chronolgy of Laibach are diversified, as well as its records, while its philosophy is a complex one. Its history until 1989 is dealt with in much detail in the NSK book. Regarding the philosophy - it may be called untranslatable, which of course means that it is understood by those who understand it. It is a certain poetry which is reflected in all Laibach's work, including interviews, and which can be interpreted in a number of ways. This is entirely up to you, of course. We could assume despite this that Laibach is the ideological foundation of NSK while the Irwin artists group has the function of NSK biographers recording NSK archetypes on canvas and in history. The Noordung Theater (formerly Red Pilot, and Scipion Nasice before that) assumes ritualistic NSK contexts and operates through religious patterns above all. Their work is also rich in scope, but we intend to gradually familiarise you with it as closely as possible.

Besides these three groups the most active within NSK are the New Collectivism Design Studio and the Department of Pure and Applied Philosophy. The former obviously works with design (posters, record covers, books, etc.) and the latter mainly with critical aspects of classic philosophy. The Department treats philosophy as its subject matter and medium, which does not imply that this philosophy is entirely relevant to other NSK groups or to NSK as a whole. In spite of links, they are strictly separated in NSK. Each of the groups works according to its internal logic, its rules and principles of work, whereas they are connected by a certain contextual and formal aspect, and this aspect is what forms NSK.