• Wed 19 04 2017 / 8:45 pm •
Laibach

Among many things, Laibach has also been described as deliberate kitsch: “music for stomping around in jackboots.” As a performance-art project and a Gesamtkunstwerk, the Slovenian collective has been surrounded with controversy since its foundation in 1980. Even its name – the German name for the city of Ljubljana – evokes the Nazi occupation of Slovenia in Second World War. Their visuals combine strong references to avant-garde art, nazi-Kunst and socialist realism, and they originally appeared as an anonymous quartet dressed in uniforms, making conceptual proclamations, and forceful sonic stage performances – mainly labeled as industrial (pop). Laibach’s over-the-top militaristic self-stylization, propagandist manifestos and statements on totalitarianism have raised many debates on their actual artistic and political positioning. Their response is typical: “We are fascists as much as Hitler was a painter.” Their latest album Spectre (released on Mute in 2014) makes a somewhat less ambiguous statement, presenting a political manifesto in poetic form.


Venue: Volksbühne am Rudolfplatz, Aachener Str. 5, 50674 Cologne