The Laibachian Exegete

@laibachianexegete
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Personal & unofficial musings about the Slovenian band Laibach and its cultural, political and #metapolitical context. Your journey to #industrial Central #Europe, to your (dark) past and (frightening) future, begins here. And don't forget to bring along [maestros] Gustav and György! In the #dark times there will be singing.
#music #indus #art #politics
The 60th October Salon in Belgrade Poses a Thought-Provoking Question: What's Left?

The 60th October Salon contemplates the traces and spaces of an expansive international exhibition by wondering what is left behind after a six-week art spree.

We have to consciously apply critical reading skills to modern media instead of reacting reflexively

Read more 👉 https://www.joanwestenberg.com/the-death-of-critical-thinking-will-kill-us-long-before-ai/

The Death of Critical Thinking Will Kill Us Long Before AI.

We have witnessed a multi-generational decline in reading comprehension. We read less, retain less of what we read, and struggle to engage in critical analysis. And if this trend continues, we risk undermining the very foundations of our society. In the bite-sized content and viral media age, too many of

westenberg.
Not only has Laibach's musical output always been #theatrical by essence, #collaboration with theater groups, be it for new creations or to revisit classics, is a constant of their work for the very beginning. Here's the latest example!
#theater #theatre #industrial #indus #Brecht

https://seestage.org/interview/erosanteros-bringing-brechts-saint-joan-of-the-stockyards-to-the-stage/
Bringing Brecht's Saint Joan of the Stockyards to the stage

Italian theatre makers ErosAntEros on their ambitious staging of Brecht's Saint Joan of the Stockyards featuring live music by Laibach

See Stage
No-one can make sense of these "strange" connections if not you, the listener: there is no ready-made, definitive interpretation of those symbolic layers. It is, once again, a mirror reflecting the state of the world, and your own position within it. This Laibachian Exegete will never claim to possess and exhaust the whole truth of Laibach! "For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully even as I have been fully known." (1 Corinthians 13:12)
In typically Laibachian fashion, the accompanying visual of a stylized watermelon (with let's say rather "strange" seeds) creates yet another (and equally disturbing) bridge, or short-circuit, between the history of US racism (which used, and still uses, the fruit as a derogative stereotype of Black people), and the current situation in Gaza (as Palestinian activists use the fruit as a symbolic proxy of the Palestinian flag colors).
Laibach treats the #jazz song as a classical #Lied (sung of course in the trademark vocal fry of Milan Fras), with #atonal piano reminiscent of the post-WWI Second Vienna School or the post-WWII Darmstadt School, and only slight and subtle touches of electronics. This creates a striking musical bridge between the horrors of war-torn Europe (to which expressionist and atonal music was, in part, a reaction) and the racial darkness of the segregated US South.
On the eve of the US election, Laibach posted a desperate, devastating rendition of "Strange Fruit", written by Lewis Allan [Abel Meeropol] and better known through the voices of Billie Holiday and Nina Simone. A song so deeply laden with the history and suffering of Black America that nobody should/could cover it... except maybe Laibach, who strike a surprisingly effective balance between a faithful respect towards the original and the addition of new, gripping layers.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f9ittNTLZWw
LAIBACH : STRANGE FRUIT

Directed by Urška ŽnidaršičDOP : Sašo ŠtihSteady Cam by Rok MissonEditing by Jaka TeršekDesign by Blaž RojsFilmed at Delavski dom Trbovlje, 2024STRANGE FRUIT...

YouTube
Michael Benson's "Predictions of Fire" (1995) might well prove one of the best #documentaries ever on the nexus between #art, #massmedia and #politics. A meticulous exploration of the principles behind #Laibach and the #NSK art movement, it reaches deep into the suppressed #history of #Europe, and dissects the evolution of political discourses with surgical precision. A must-see at the dawn of the new #dark times. Sadly as relevant today as it ever was.
#indus #music
https://vimeo.com/408850631
Predictions of Fire

A film about art, ideology, mass media, and war, Predictions of Fire documents the 20th Century history of Slovenia through the lens of Ljubljana's NSK art…

Vimeo