LAIBACH

Industrial rock music group founded in 1980 in Trbovlje (Slovenia) and also founders of the NSK – Neue Slowenische Kunst (New Slovenian Art) during the same decade. Laibach advocated from the beginning a revolutionary socialism against the triviality of the current socialism[1] , and his work transcends the music itself under a critical discourse, where his aesthetics holds a great symbolism.

In their 10 Clauses of the pact, published in 1982, they express the focus of their work: “all art is subject to political manipulation (directly and consciously), except that which speaks the language of that same manipulation. To speak with a political expression means to discover and recognize the omnipresence of politics. The function of the most human form of politics is to bridge the gap between reality and spirit by mobilizing the masses. Ideology takes the place of the authentic form of social consciousness. In modern society, the subject who knows these facts is the one who occupies the place of the political subject. LAIBACH reveals and expresses the union of politics and ideology with industrial production, and the deep gaps between this union and the spirit”. [2]

The contribution that Laibach offers to Confinement Archive is a video made in 2018 and published during the month of April 2020, as it acquires a new reading in the pandemic era. APPEAL TO ALL CITIZENS is a piece inspired by Andrzej Panufnik’s Sacred Symphony (Symphony No. 3) whose lyrics are based on the proclamation of martial law in Poland by General Wojciech Jaruzelski on 13th December 1981. Today that concert could not take place due to the so-called social distancing, but its message today reaches all citizens, even outside Polish borders.