Laibach

Laibach is a retro-avant-garde music group from Trbovlje, established in 1980. Probably the most internationally acclaimed Slovene band, Laibach works as a "gesamtkunstwerk", dealing in multidisciplinary art practice and mixing their music with visual and video art, as well as with heavy political (and philosophical) undertones. The band is well known for their subtly crafted cover versions, often used to subvert the original message or intention of the song.

Since the beginning the group was associated and surrounded with controversy (their name being the historic German version of the name for the Slovene capital Ljubljana), provoking strong reactions by political authorities in former Yugoslavia. However, as of the 90s onward the band functions as a well known art institution in Slovenia and abroad.

Initial history

Established in Trbovlje, a coal mining industrial town in the centre of Slovenia, Laibach launched their first multimedia project Rdeči revirji (Red Districts) in the same year, a project designed to challenge the striking contradictions of the political structure of the town at that time. The project was banned before it opened, preventing the first public appearance of the group, though not the angry media response which followed. Laibach appeared again in 1982 with their first concert in Ljubljana.

Next followed concerts around Yugoslavia (Zagreb, Belgrade) and a headlining appearance at the New Rock [Novi Rock] Festival in Križanke in the centre of Ljubljana. On 23 June 1983 the group made its first television appearance with an interview on the political news programme TV Tednik. The interview provoked numerous reactions, and was followed by an administrative political ban on public appearances and the use of the name Laibach.

The year 1983 saw the first European tour by the group, the Occupied Europe Tour, which also featured the British group Last Few Days. The 17-date tour covered 16 cities in eight countries in Eastern and Western Europe. After their performance in Warsaw the then ambassador of socialist Yugoslavia made a declaration which seems the most concise characterisation of Laibach's performances ever, saying: "This is a completely adequate presentation of the history of the Yugoslav nations."

Archive photograph, Laibach Occupied Europe NATO Tour 1994-95, 1994

In 1984 Laibach became a founding member of the Neue Slowenische Kunst (NSK) art collective.

Releases

Laibach's first album Laibach was released in April 1985 on the Slovene ŠKUC Ropot label. However, because of the ban the record came out without the group's name; instead the cover featured a symbol that was Laibach’s trademark. Its second and third albums Rekapitulacija 1980–1984 (1985) and Neu Konservatiw (1985) were the first of the group's records to gain an international release. Following Nova Akropola, Laibach's 1986 album for British independent Cherry Red, the group was signed by London-based Mute Records. Opus Dei, released in Spring 1987, was the first album on this new label.

The band's discography since 1987 includes more than 20 titles, most of them released by Mute Records. Some of them are Krst Pod Triglavom-Baptism (1987), Sympathy for the Devil (Mute Records, 1988), Kapital (Mute Records, 1992), NATO (Mute Records, 1994), WAT (Mute Records, 2003), Volk (Mute Records, 2006), Iron Sky – The Original Soundtrack (Mute Records, 2012), and Spectre (Mute Records, 2014).

Select performances

Laibach is performing at prestigious venues all over the world, including the otherwise hermetically sealed North Korea in 2015. This particular endeavour was presented in Morten Traavik's documentary called Liberation Day (2016), co-produced by Staragara.

In 2009 Laibach presented the project VOLKSWAGNER, an interpretation of Wagner's music by Laibach in collaboration with the RTV Slovenia Symphony Orchestra and Izidor Leitinger in Gallus Hall of Cankarjev dom in Ljubljana.

In 2011 Laibach has collaborated also in a coproduction with the East West Theatre Company Sarajevo, Slovene National Theatre Maribor and Maribor, European Capital of Culture 2012: the performance Europe Today, based on Miroslav Krleža's text, was directed by Haris Pašović and co-performed by Miki Manojlović and Edward Clug (choreography).

Laibach presented its soundtrack for the movie Iron Sky at several film festivals in 2012, in June 2014 along with other Slovene artists, they were guests of the IKS International Festival of Contemporary Theatre in Split, Croatia.

Laibach, concert in Trbovlje, 2009

Selected exhibitions

A retrospective exhibition Ausstellung Laibach Kunst - Recapitulation 2009 was shown at Muzeum Sztuki in Łódź in 2009, confronting historic and recent material.

The International Centre of Graphic Arts, Ljubljana set up the exhibition GESAMTKUNST LAIBACH, Fundamentals 1980–1990, opened from 15 April to 6 June 2010, which presented the group's visual artworks (posters, album covers, fanzines, linocuts, xeroxes, paintings and installations) as well as the controversial TV interview from 1983 and other documentary material. Also, 30 years after the Laibach's first (and then banned) exhibition, the group set up at the same place, in Laibach’s home town Trbovlje, a multi-day event with concerts, symposium and exhibition Austellung Laibach Kunst: RED DISTRICT + BLACK CROSS in Delavski dom Trbovlje Cultural Centre.

TheLaibach exhibition RED DISTRICTS + BLACK CROSS 24 September-20 October 2010, Delavski dom Trbovlje Cultural Centre (Workers Cultural Centre3) and various sites in Trbovlje

The most complex exhibition of Laibach Kunst in Slovenia was the Austellung Laibach Kunst - Perspectives, opened at the Maribor Art Gallery in February 2011, featuring multi-media installations, oil paintings, photographs, prints and film. In May the exhibition Austellung Laibach Kunst 1980-2011 - Ceci n'est pas Malevich was set up in Croatian Artists' Centre (HDLU). Laibach's solo concert was held at Boogaloo, the venue where Laibach held their famous incriminated Music Biennale show in 1983.

In May 2011 Laibach's "installation performance" of Die Kunst der Fuge was presented at the Museum of Contemporary Art (MACBA) in Barcelona on the occasion of a large retrospecive exhibition of Eastern European arts entitled Museum of Parallel Narratives (1956-1986) - l'Internationale, within the EU supported project initiated by the Museum of Modern Art (Moderna galerija Ljubljana).

In April 2012 the exhibitions at the CHELSEA space and Calvert22, and a symposium Neue Slowenische Kunst (1984 - 1992): A Historical Perspective took place at the Tate Modern in London where Laibach had a concert at the Turbine Hall. The Art Histories exhibition curated by Marie-Josée Jean featuring Laibach, Marina Gržinić and Aina Šmid and Irwin was staged at the VOX Centre in Montreal, Canada.

In June 2013 Black Square - 100 Years, a group exhibition also featured works by Laibach and Irwin at Australian Experimental Art Foundation - Lion Arts Centre in Adelaide, Australia.

In autumn 2013 Was ist Kunst?, a joint exhibition also featuring works by Laibach was organized in the framework of the Festival of new art - steirischer herbst at Künstlerhaus in Graz, Austria.

On the occasion of the 30th anniversary of the City University of Hong Kong and their Sound Art Symposium in 2014, a concert an exhibition and an artist talk by Laibach was presented at the The Vine Centre in Hong Kong.

External links

References

Gallery

Ivan Novak, Igor Zupe and Dejan Knez at the premiere of Music is the Art of Time 3, LP film Laibach, Kinodvor Cinema, 2018.

Laibach press image, 2006

The Death of Ideology, Laibach poster, 1982

Laibach, interview for the cultural/political programme TV TEDNIK (TV Weekly), Slovenian national television. This provocative appearance prompted the showâs host to brand them âenemies of the peopleâ, calling for a boycott. 1983

Laibach in Belgrade, 1986

Laibach, publicity image for Opus Dei, 1987

Laibach, Jalta, 1994. Laibach supported the NATO LP (Mute Records, 1994) with their lengthy Occupied Europe NATO Tour 1994-95 which ended with two concerts in besieged, war-torn Sarajevo as part of their NSK State Sarajevo event.

Archive image from Laibach Occupied Europe NATO Tour 1994–95.

Archive photograph, Laibach Occupied Europe NATO Tour 1994-95, 1994

Laibach, documentation from shopping mall performance action Einkauf, 2003

Following the release of the album WAT (Mute Records,2003), Laibach carried out a major European tour in 2003. Sung in both German and English WAT pondered the major topics of the Iraq War, anti-Semitism, terrorism and crisis in the modern world.

Laibach, 2003

WAT (Mute Records, 2003), intensified Laibachâs analysis of the traumatic relationships between music and power, art and ideology, life and death. Following the release of WAT, Laibach carried out a major European tour in 2003.

Laibach concert, 2003

Laibach in performance, 2003

Laibach press image, Volk (Mute records, 2006). Volk is a collection of interpretations of national anthems and includes the national anthem for the NSK State which Laibach co-founded in 1992.

Artwork alongside the album LAIBACHKUNSTDERFUGE BWV 1080 (Dallas Records/Mute Records, 2008), Laibach's interpretation of Johann Sebastian Bach's famous work The Art of Fugue (Die Kunst der Fuge).

Laibach press image, 2008

Laibach press image, 2009

Laibach at open air Speculum Artium Festival in front of Delavski dom Trbovlje Cultural Centre, 2009

VOLKSWAGNER 3, Laibach in collaboration with RTV Slovenia Symphony Orchestra and composer Izidor Leitinger, 2009. A sonic suite in three acts making connections between Wagner, modernism and jazz, crossbred with pop art.

Laibach, Volk, Delavski dom Trbovlje Cultural Centre, 2009. This performance is also documented on the DVD Dead in Trbovlje (directed by Sašo Podgoršek)

Laibach, Volk concert in Trbovlje, 2009

Laibach, concert in Trbovlje, 2009

Laibach, concert in Trbovlje, 2010

TheLaibach exhibition RED DISTRICTS + BLACK CROSS 24 September-20 October 2010, Delavski dom Trbovlje Cultural Centre (Workers Cultural Centre3) and various sites in Trbovlje

Mina Špiler, a vocalist preforming with the Laibach group in concert at Kino Šiška in Ljubljana, 2012

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Laibach

Contents

Initial history

Releases

Select performances

Selected exhibitions

See also

External links

Gallery

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