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| Pluralni Monolit/WAT launch event, Vila Bled, 07.09.2003 |
This is an
edited version of my presentation at the launch events in Bled and
Ljubljana...
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, 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 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.
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.
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 it’s 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.
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.
Finally,
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 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 such 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!
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