10 Items Of The Covenant *
1.
LAIBACH works as a team (the collective spirit), according to the principle
of industrial production and totalitarianism, which means that the individual
does not speak; the organization does. Our work is industrial, our language
political.
2.
LAIBACH analyzes the relation between ideology and culture in a late phase,
presented through art. LAIBACH sublimates the tension between them and the
existing disharmonies (social unrest, individual frustrations, ideological
oppositions) and thus eliminates every direct ideological and systemic discursiveness.
The very name and the emblem are visible materializations of the idea on
the level of a cognitive symbol. The name LAIBACH is a suggestion of the
actual possibility of establishing a politicized (system) ideological art
because of the influence of politics and ideology.
3.
All art is subject to political manipulation (indirectly - consciousness;
directly), except for that which speaks the language of this same manipulation.
To speak in political terms means to reveal and acknowledge the omnipresence
of politics. The role of the most humane form of politics is the bridging
of the gap between reality and the mobilizing spirit Ideology takes the
place of authentic forms of social consciousness. The subject in modern
society assumes the role of the politicized subject by acknowledging these
facts. LAIBACH reveals and expresses the link of politics and ideology with
industrial production and the unbridgeable gaps between this link and the
spirit.
4.
The triumph of anonymity and facelessness has been intensified to the absolute
through a technological process. All individual differences of the authors
are annulled, every trace of individuality erased. The technological process
is a method of programming function. It represents development; i.e., purposeful
change. To isolate a particle of this process and form it statically, means
to reveal man's negation of any kind of evolution which is foreign to and
inadequate for his biological evolution.
LAIBACH adopts the organizational system of industrial production and the
identification with the ideology as its work method. In accordance with
this, each member personally rejects his individuality, thereby expressing
the relationship between the particular form of production system and ideology
and the individual.The form of social production appears in the manner of
production of LAIBACH music itself and the relations within the group. The
group functions operationally according to the principle of rational transformation,
and its (hierarchical) structure is coherent.
5.
The internal structure functions on the directive principle and symbolizes
the relation of ideology towards the individual. The idea is concentrated
in one (and the same) person, who is prevented from any kind of deviation.
The quadruple principle acts by the same key (EBER-SALIGER-KELLER-DACHAUER),
which - predestined - conceals in itself an arbitrary number of sub-objects
(depending on the needs).
The flexibility and anonymity of the members prevents possible individual
deviations and allows a permanent revitalization of the internal juices
of life. A subject who can identify himself with the extreme position of
contemporary industrial production automatically becomes a LAIBACH member
(and is simultaneously condemned for his objectivization).
6.
The basis of LAIBACH's activity lies in its concept of unity, which expresses
itself in each media according to appropriate laws (art, music, film...).
The material of LAIBACH manipulation: Taylorism, bruitism, Nazi Kunst, disco...
The principle of work is totally constructed and the compositional process
is a dictated "ready-made:" Industrial production is rationally
developmental, but if we extract from this process the element of the moment
and emphasize it, we also designate to it the mystical dimension of alienation,
which reveals the magical component of the industrial process. Repression
of the industrial ritual is transformed into a compositional dictate and
the politicization of sound can become absolute tonality.
7.
LAIBACH excludes any evolution of the original idea; the original concept
is not evolutionary but entelechical, and the presentation is only a link
between this static and the changing determinant unit. We take the same
stand towards the direct influence of the development of music on the LAIBACH
concept; of course, this influence is a material necessity but it is of
secondary importance and appears only as a historical musical foundation
of the moment which, in its choice is unlimited. LAIBACH expresses its timelessness
with the artifacts of the present and it is thus necessary that at the intersection
of politics and industrial production (the culture of art, ideology, consciousness)
it encounters the elements of both, although it wants to be both. This wide
range allows LAIBACH to oscillate, creating the illusion of movement (development).
8.
LAIBACH practices provocation on the revolted state of the alienated consciousness
(which must necessarily find itself an enemy) and unites warriors and opponents
into an expression of a static totalitarian scream.
It acts as a creative illusion of strict institutionality, as a social theater
of popular culture, and communicates only through non-communication.
9.
Besides LAIBACH, which concerns itself with the manner of industrial production
in totalitarianism, there also exist two other groups in the concept of
LAIBACH KUNST aesthetics: GERMANIA studies the emotional side, which is
outlined in relations to the general ways of emotional, erotic and family
life, lauding the foundations of the state functioning of emotions on the
old classicist form of new social ideologies.
DREIHUNDERT TAUSEND VERSCHIEDENE KRAWALLE is a retrospective futuristic
negative utopia (The era of peace has ended).
10.
LAIBACH is the knowledge of the universality of the moment. It is the revelation
of the absence of balance between sex and work, between servitude and activity.
It uses all expressions of history to mark this imbalance. This work is
without limit; God has one face, the devil infinitely many. LAIBACH is
the return of action on behalf of the idea.
Trbovlje, 1982
*First published in Nova revija, No. 13/14, 1983 (a Slovene review for
cultural and political issues).