“Bob Dylan is by all means phenomenon who inspired us sincerely and deeply. This narcissist Christianised egoist of Jewish descent, who can’t really sing nor play, who recorded bunch of bad and non-listenable records, directed few third class films, most of his material he scraped from tradition, or has stolen from elsewhere, who climbed to stage over corpses of his inclined acquaintances and friends, used and wrung everybody who approached him, and if his songs wouldn’t perform Hendrix, Donovan, The Birds, Peter, Paul & Mary, Sonny & Cher, Joan Baez, Johnny Cash… most probably nobody wouldn’t hear about him nowadays.

But, in spite of all this, Dylan is already for 50 years the biggest and most prominent fixed star on the sky of the contemporary popular culture who didn’t only fatally influence the development of music and poetry in the second half of 20th century, but also art, culture and politics in general. Without him and legions of his fanatic worshipers, which proclaimed him for Messiah and Saviour, would be the last half of the century significantly more non-reflected and contents-wise empty in creative and poetic sense. That’s why, we LAIBACH, are honoured, that we can make a bow to him in this presented project by ourselves. And we don’t bow that often at all.” Laibach

The CD features many of Slovenia’s best-known musicians, and represents an amazing overview of both the deep talent and diverse styles here. Musicians include Vlado Kreslin, Laibach, Katalena, Zoran Predin, Hic et Nunc, Mia Žnidarič, Niet, 6 Pack Čukur, Severa, Chris Eckman & the Frictions, Brina, Peter Lovšin, Murat & Jose, and even world famous opera soprano Sabina Cvilak. Each artist chose their own Dylan song, and each have managed to put their unique stamp on songs that range from throughout Dylan’s 50 year career. Chris Eckman, an American musician living in Ljubljana, served as the project’s music director.

The non-profit project, which was conceived by U.S. Embassy Public Affairs Officer Christopher Wurst, includes the CD, a documentary film, a film festival and a major autumn concert at Križanke. “Our goal was to showcase an American icon who is almost equally iconic in Slovenia,” said Wurst, “and at the same time encourage young Slovenians to get involved with issues that affect them – just as Dylan has done with generations of Americans and people around the world.”

While the main theme of the project is volunteerism, it also aims to raise awareness about a large number of issues, including human trafficking, violence against women, child abuse, children’s health issues, mental and physical handicaps, youth drug prevention, active citizenship, asylum issues, the environment, fighting against corruption, development and global issues, and regional cooperation. NGO partners include Sloga, Slovenska filantropija – Slovene Philanthropy, PIC – Legal Information Center, Društvo Integriteta – Transparency International Slovenia, Društvo Ključ, Zavod Emma, Društvo SOS – SOS Helpline, Rdeči noski – Red Noses, aktivendrzavljan.si, Ekologi brez meja – Ecologists Without Borders, Focus, Zavod Voluntariat, Nacionalni svet invalidskih organizacij Slovenije – the National Council of Disabled People’s Organizations of Slovenia, and Zveza društev na področju drog Slovenije – Association of NGOs working in the drug prevention in Slovenia.

The documentary film captures both the artists learning how to adapt the different Dylan songs, and also highlights the above issues, and showcases work being done at the grassroots level by Slovenian volunteers. Award-winning filmmakers Maja Weiss and Peter Braatz are directing the film, entitled “Forever Young,” which will make its premiere on RTV Slovenia in September. The film will also be distributed by the U.S. Embassy to Slovenian schools.

Later in September, a Bob Dylan film festival will be featured at Kinoteka, followed by a large concert on September 21st, at Križanke. The concert, which will also be mounted by the U.S. Embassy, will include many of the artists featured on the CD, and will be used exclusively to promote volunteerism in Slovenia.

For obtaining the free CD, write e-mail to: ljuDylanProject@state.gov

AUSSTELLUNG LAIBACH KUNST PERSPECTIVES 1980-2011
UGM l Maribor Art Gallery, Strossmayerjeva 6, Maribor, Slovenia
Press Conference: Wednesday, 23 February 2011 at 11:00
Opening: Thursday, 24 February 2011 at 19:00

The exhibition is dedicated to the academic painter Janez Knez (1931−2011).

The internationally renowned multidisciplinary collective and performance group Laibach are returning to the exhibition space! After 30 years of provocative activities and ‘performances’, Umetnostna galerija Maribor / Maribor Art Gallery presents a review of Laibach’s visual artwork.

Since their formation in the early 1980s, Laibach have been engaged in an obsessive dialogue with the totalitarian ideologies of modernity and their relation to art. Far from being solely intelligible in the cultural context of 1980s Yugoslavia, their work still offers critical perspectives to a globalised world which continues to be affected by modernity’s conceptions of the state, the individual, mass culture, art, and politics. Exhibition at UGM opens new perspectives on Laibach by highlighting their original beginnings as an ‘arts’ collective. Although Laibach have repeatedly rejected this designation, their self-fashioning as ‘engineers of the human soul’ is telling of the degree to which all of Laibach’s performances have sought to ironize and collapse clear-cut categories such as ‘art’, ‘politics’, and ‘popular culture’. Despite their influence on established artists, theorists and wider audiences, Laibach occupy an unframed position in the national and international art scene today. Their explorations into the world of popular music have gained them international renown. However, all of their performances have been radically self-reflexive in a way that responds to the functions ascribed to ‘political art’ in contemporary society, rather than to the consumerist and escapist nature of popular music. With their performances on diverse stages such as galleries, concert halls, opera houses, TV, internet, video, theatre, industrial power plants and shopping malls, Laibach represent a unique challenge to the categories established by Western art criticism.

The exhibition comprises twelve rooms presenting key stages of Laibach’s work from the first decade of their career in the 1980s up to the present. The works on display include multi-media installations, oil paintings, photographs, graphic works, and film. A new installation created especially for this exhibition, titled Artist Perspective, will be on view. This is the biggest Laibach Kunst exhibition in Slovenia to date.
The exhibition includes works from private collections of Neil Rector and Daniel Miller, works by Jane Štravs and Sašo Podgoršek and objects from the Maribor Regional Museum and the Institute of Anatomy of the University of Ljubljana. The exhibited works were created in collaboration with Janez Knez, Paola Korošec, Benjamin Kreže, Simon and Uroš Arnšek.

Curated by: Simona Vidmar, Laibach and Claudia Richter

Wonderloch-Kellerland
Biesentaler Str. 6
D-13359 Berlin

contact@wonderloch-kellerland.org

ENTRY: 5 EURO.

In the year 1945 the Nazis went to the Moon, and in 2018 they are coming back. This is the premise of the sci-fi film Iron Sky, the upcoming movie project from the creators of the hugely popular internet hit Star Wreck.

The soundtrack of the invasion will be provided by Laibach, in collaboration with Ben Watkins (Juno Reactor) as a co-writer and producer of the score. You can get the first taste of the soundtrack on the new teaser that was published today.

Iron Sky has a budget of 6.5 million euros, which makes it one of the most expensive Finnish movies to date.

“I was actually sitting in a sauna with our team when one of us, Jarmo Puskala, came up with the idea that we should do a film about Nazis on the Moon. I agreed, and my number one demand was that if so, I want Laibach to do the music“, commented the Iron Sky director Timo Vuorensola about their choice of artists. “It was a far-fetched idea at the moment, but stuck into my head as a general style guideline not just for music, but for the general approach for the film, and finally, when I heard they would be interested after we contacted them, I was in ecstasy. Their unique sense of humor and nice and twisted approach will really light a spark in the wretched genre of film music. We’re hoping to create something like Vangelis did for Blade Runner – not just a soundtrack, but a whole new world that echoes through the music.”

“A few years ago we were approached by some crazy Finns on one of our tours in Finland to cooperate on film with them, but we didn’t take them that seriously at first“, said the spokesman of Laibach. “A year later we received a call and shortly afterwards the Iron Sky people visited Ljubljana. We went to our mountain shelter in the Julian Alps and they told us the story about the film they wanted us to collaborate on. They also showed us the work they had done so far and we were convinced straight away.”

“We were always fascinated by the secret histories of politics and power, as well as by space and the universe itself. We firmly believe that there is actually a great possibility that many Nazis survived the defeat after the Second World War and they escaped not only to South America and the USA but very probably Across the Universe, and especially to the Moon and creating a settlement there. In their last phase the Nazis certainly developed highly sophisticated equipment which theoretically could have helped them to reach and colonise the Moon.”

“This is of course a hypothetical film, but in our sincere opinion it is not entirely impossible and in fact quite logical. If it ever came true this film would be a perfect illustrated prediction about the clash between the two greatly Nazified civilisations existing on the same expanded time scale, so close but so far away from each other. We can’t wait for the result and we definitely want to be there when it happens!”

The movie creators collaborate actively with their audience and fans on all fronts, from publicity through content to funding. People who are interested in Iron Sky may demand to see the film in their home city using a system called Crowd Controls, collaborate in creating the movie in the acclaimed film creation playform Wreckamovie and fans can invest in the movie.

15 April – 6 June 2010
At the International Centre of Graphic Arts in Ljubljana.

Thirty years have passed since the founding of Laibach, a group whose music and performances have become part of cultural history. What many do not know, however, is that Laibach in fact began its career as a visual art group. Images that most of us know from the paintings of the Irwin group – the cross, the coffee cup, the deer, the metal worker – were originally Laibach motifs. They were part of the capital the group invested in the newly established collective Neue Slowenische Kunst in 1984. With the founding of NSK, the visual art tradition Laibach had been creating up to that time was taken over by Irwin.

Laibach brought an alternative post-modern form of creativity into Slovene art. The group drew connections between New Image painting, the do-it-yourself art of punk bands and the post-conceptual practices that were being promoted in the Belgrade and Zagreb art scenes. Laibach “welded together” various media – music, video, film and performance – “high” and “low” culture, pop culture, politics and art. And at the very start of the 1980s, they defined in clear terms the fundamentals of the Retro-Avant-Garde.

Laibach’s first realized exhibition (not including the one in Trbovlje in 1980, which was so controversial it was banned before it ever opened) took place in June 1981 at the Srećna galerija of the Student Cultural Centre in Belgrade. Some of the group’s members had been doing their army service in Belgrade and, in their spare time, had developed contacts with the alternative and New Wave scene that met at the student centre. Titled Ausstellung Laibach Kunst, the exhibition presented some of the group’s early prints and paintings as Laibach’s music buzzed alongside them from a cassette recorder.
The artworks represented a response to the contemporary art scene outside of Yugoslavia, especially the Neue Wilde artists in West Germany, who in the late 1970s depicted such urban phenomena as the punk scene and addressed certain suppressed topics from recent German history, specifically, from the Nazi and post-war periods. Punk and the reinterrogation of Nazism and other totalitarian ideologies was also an integral part of the subculture scene in Ljubljana.

This first show in Belgrade was followed by the extraordinary ambient exhibition Plane Crash Victims, in December 1981 at the newly formed Disco FV in the Rožna Dolina Student Village in Ljubljana; Laibach then went on to have fairly regular exhibitions at Galerija ŠKUC in Ljubljana, Galerija PM in Zagreb and the Student Cultural Centre in Belgrade. With the founding of NSK in 1984, Laibach redirected their energies into music, while the art tradition they had created was in large part taken over by the Irwin painters. With the disintegration of Neue Slowenische Kunst, which in the early nineties gradually reshaped itself as a utopian “state in time” (without its own territory), each of the member-groups continued to develop their own aesthetics and Laibach again started appearing from time to time in a gallery context. Thus, in 2009, at the Muzeum Sztuki in Łódź, Poland, Laibach had its first retrospective exhibition, which was very well received by the Polish media. Three large gallery presentations are planned for this year: in Ljubljana (at the International Centre of Graphic Arts), Trbovlje (at the Workers’ Hall) and Zagreb (at the Croatian Association of Artists).

The exhibition at the International Centre of Graphic Arts presents a survey of Laibach’s art in the first decade of their career, when they played a central role in the art of the 1980s subculture movement. The show presents Laibach as a multi-media group combining art, music and theoretical writings, with the transfer of theoretical thinking from Laibach to NSK shown using the example of visual culture. The exhibition is itself historic, for here paintings, prints, posters, publications, newspaper pages, invitations, record covers, photographs, concert stage sets, videos and promotional products are assembled and displayed for the first time in 30 years. Also on view are three new installations made especially for the International Centre of Graphic Arts exhibition. The exhibition is curated by Lilijana Stepančič.

The exhibited works come from the archives of Laibach, Barbara Borčić, Škuc Forum, Radio-Television Slovenia and the photographers Boris Cvetanović, Dragan Papić, Jane Štravs, Nikolaj Pečenko, Antonijo Živković and Siniša Lopojda, as well as from the collections of the International Centre of Graphic Arts, Neil Rector and Daniel Miller and the photography collection of the National Museum of Contemporary History.

The exhibition is on view at the International Centre of Graphic Arts, Tivoli Mansion, Pod turnom 3, Ljubljana, from 16 April to 6 June 2010, from Wednesday to Sunday, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Info: Lili Šturm, t. + 386 1 2413 800/818, lili.sturm@mglc-lj.si, www.mglc-lj.si

Accompanying Exhibition:

2010 Laibach
21 April – 12 May 2010, Galerija Luwigana, Ljubljana
23 April – 14 May 2010, Galerija 14, Bled

Prints and posters are among the basic forms of expression for the group Laibach. Even at their earliest exhibitions, between 1980 and 1984, graphic art represented a core part of the group’s repertoire. Laibach still returns to printmaking on occasion, and now they are presenting their most recent graphic work an accompanying programme to the exhibition Gesamtkunst Laibach, Fundamentals 1980–1990. With never-ending artistic freshness, Laibach creates a path for reading images that will also appeal to the new generation born after 1980.

Info: Miha Poljak, Studio Černe, t. 08 82051 174, 01 541 72 10, miha@studiocerne.si, info@studiocerne.si, www.studiocerne.si
Galerija Luwigana, Gornji trg 19, Ljubljana, open Mon.–Fri. 3 p.m. – 8 p.m.; Sat. 10 a.m. – 2 p.m. / Galerija 14, Prešernova c. 14, Bled, open Tue.–Fri. 3 p.m. – 7 p.m.

A concert by Laibach, featuring music from the group’s first decade, is being planned in conjunction with the exhibition GESAMTKUNST LAIBACH; the details of the performance will be announced at a later date.

Laibach’s achievements place them among the world’s most acclaimed groups. Here we will mention only the fact that the British curator Catherine Wood, writing in the American art magazine Artforum in December, chose Laibach’s project The Art of the Fugue (LAIBACHKUNSTDERFUGE, Dallas Records, 2007), which the group presented at a live concert in London, as one of the top ten events of 2009.

The LAIBACH REVISITED double album will include a complete version of the first classic Laibach album (LAIBACH, 1985), re-mastered from the original tapes with additional tracks included on the disc one. The second disc will present newly arranged and recorded versions of selected songs from the period 1980 – 1986, including Brat moj (Brother of Mine), Država (The State), Mi kujemo bodočnost (We Are Forging the Future), Krvava gruda – plodna zemlja (Bloody Ground – Fertile Soil), and others. This album is due to be released in May 2010.

The VOLKSWAGNER double album will present a unique Laibachian interpretation of Richard Wagner’s music. Disc 1 will present a studio version of recorded and mixed material created in collaboration between Laibach, the RTV Slovenia Symphony Orchestra, and Izidor Leitinger. Disc 2 will present a selection of tracks recorded from live performances of the VOLKSWAGNER suite. This album is scheduled for release in the second half of 2010.

Both albums will be produced as valuable collector’s items, equipped with richly designed booklets featuring exclusive photos, pictures, texts, essays, and information. The vinyl version will also feature a special poster. Precise descriptions of the albums and the exact release dates will be announced closer to the release date.

You can reserve a copy of the albums!

The Trbovlje exhibition will open in the Delavski Dom on September 27th, exactly 30 years after the (forbidden) very first Laibach appearance at the same place in Laibach’s home town.

Ljubljana exhibition at MGLC (International Centre of Graphic Arts) will open on April 1st 2010.

Zagreb exhibition date will be announced as soon as the date is confirmed.

Laibach and Juno Reactor will join forces on an EU double headline tour in December.

The premiere show of the tour was already held on 18 October 2009 on the occasion of the long-awaited opening of Kino Šiška, a new concert and cultural venue in Ljubljana, Slovenia. For this occasion Laibach created new versions of some of their older tracks from the first half of 1980s, which will now also be presented on the upcoming tour.

Laibach and Juno Reactor first met in 1994 at the legendary 429 Harrow Road, London, where the Mute Records label was based until very recently. Juno Reactor, then recording for Nova Mute, accepted an invitation from Laibach to remix a version of Final Countdown for their single.Two years later, Laibach included on their album Jesus Christ Superstars their own remake of Juno Reactor’s track God is God, the original version of which appeared on the JR Bible of Dreams album in 1997.

The paths of both groups have intersected briefly on several occasions, and a while ago Laibach invited Ben Watkins, the driving force behind Juno Reactor, first to participate as a producer in the studio version of their 2009 ‘electro – symphonic – experimental jazz ’ project Volkswagner, and then as a collaborator on the ambitious film project Iron Sky being developed by the creators of the Star Wreck film (the most popular internet film project of all time),who have selected Laibach to score the music for the new film. Iron Sky is to be completed at the beginning of 2011. Soon the idea of doing a joint European tour was born. The premiere concert was held on September 18th in theSlovenian capital Ljubljana on the occasion of the opening of the new Ljubljana cultural venue – Kino Siška. The rest of the tour will kick off on December 5th and take both groups through the Netherlands, France, Germany, the Czech Republic, Poland, Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia, Hungary, Belgium, and the UK. The second part of the tour is scheduled for February and March 2010.

Juno Reactor

Juno Reactor are a musical and performing act that was initially conceived as an art project by the British artist Ben Watkins. Having hoped to discover new possibilities of expression within the technology of the time, he began collaborating with various artists from the spheres of music, film, and fine art. Juno Reactor have been performing under that name since 1990, and towards the turn of the century they became a major player on the developingelectronic music scene oriented towards experimental trance and high energy music.

Juno Reactor strongly influenced groups like Prodigy and the Chemical Brothers. Subsequently they kept changing their mode of expression and realised some fruitful attempts at film music, the highlight being an instrumental remixof Control for the soundtrack of the film Mortal Kombat and compositions for parts two and three of the Matrix film trilogy (with the exceptional song Navras). Juno’s music has been used and adapted by many filmmakers over the years (including Tarantino) in cult movies such as Eraser, Virtuosity, Lost In Space, the Romeo & Juliet trailer,Once Upon a Time in Mexico, Beowulf, The Animatrix, etc, etc.

Their live concert show looks like Mad Max versus Blade Runner versus Matrix. Apart from older tracks, Juno Reactor will present on the tour their latest record Gods and Monsters (Metropolis Records). They will also be joined on stage by percussionists from South Africa and diverse musicians from around the world, including Japanese guitar star Sugizo (Yasuhiro Sugihara).

Laibach

On the upcoming tour and in light of their 30th anniversary next year, Laibach will present new versions of some of their older tracks from the first half of the 1980s, such as the notorious Država (The State), Brat moj (Brother of Mine), and Mi kujemo bodocnost (We Are Forging The Future), as well as a selection of material from last few albums.

Laibach announced a special, double headline, concert featuring Laibach and Juno Reactor on the occasion of the long-awaited opening of Kino Šiška, a new concert venue in Ljubljana (Slovenia), on 18.9.2009.

Photo by Marco Pirc

Especially for this occasion Laibach created new versions of some of their older tracks from the first half of 1980′s.
Laibach and Juno Reactor will join forces also on the selected dates on December EU tour.

Ausstellung Laibach Kunst – Recapitulation 2009 focus on the visual phenomenon of Laibach. The group which has mainly been linked to the field of popular music in the public consciousness is to be reconsidered as a unique project uniting various media.

Laibach was always a multi-dimensional, multi-medial project, breaking traditional boundaries between diverse disciplines. The exhibition tryes to establish a new view to the variety of Laibach visual activities in the framework of the Laibach Gesamtkunstwerk.

The current exhibition discovers and displays some of the oldest motifs of Laibach Kunst, reinterpreted by the group. Uncovering the elemental and the brand new in various media and techniques Laibach unveil the paraphernalia of their vivid history: classic large scale paintings, graphics, posters, installations and videos. A major part of the works will be shown for the first time in this form.

Ausstellung Laibach Kunst – Recapitulation 2009 is based on the strategy of confronting archival material with recently created pieces. This exhibition will thus not function along the lines of a typical retrospective. Laibach is an active entity in permanent critique / dialogue with the current reality. The opening will be highlighted by a short sound performance by the members of Laibach themselves.

A programme of special exhibition talks, guided tours by the curators, screenings and video shows as well as a series of lectures has been organized to complement the exhibition.

The day after the opening of exhibition Laibach will also perform the LAIBACHKUNSTDERFUGE program in the Filharmonia Łódzka im. Artura Rubinsteina.

The exhibition will last until August 23rd.