Interrogation Machine ─ Laibach And NSK

NSK is considered by many to be the last true avant-garde of the twentieth centuryand the most consistently challenging artistic force in Eastern Europe today. The acronym refers toNeue Slowenische Kunst, a Slovene collective that emerged in the wake of Tito's death and was shapedby the breakup of Yugoslavia. Its complex and disturbing work -- in fields including experimentalmusic and theater, painting, philosophy, writing, performance, and design -- has an internationalfollowing but a powerful and specific cultural context. Within the NSK organization are a number ofdivisions, the best-known of which is Laibach, an alternative music group known for its blending ofpopular culture with subversive politics, high art with underground provocation -- reflecting thepolitical and cultural chaos of its time.In Interrogation Machine, Alexei Monroe offers the firstcritical appraisal of the entire NSK phenomenon, from its elaborate organizational structure and itsinternal logics to its controversial public actions. The result is a fascinating portrait not onlyof NSK but of the complex political and cultural context within which it operates. Monroe analyzesthe paradoxes, perplexities, and traumas of NSK's work at its deepest levels. His investigation ofthe relationships between conceptual content, stylistic method, and ideological subtext demonstratesthe relevance of NSK in general and Laibach in particular to current debates about culture, power,war, politics, globalization, the marketplace, and life itself. As Slavoj Zizek writes in hisforeword, "Today, the lesson of Laibach is more pertinent than ever."Monroe uses a variety oftheoretical and historical approaches, as is appropriate to the shifting and elusive nature of hissubject. The use of theory reflects NSK's own theoretical engagement; it is also a valuable way toread the issues raised by the work. Neither oversimplifying nor uncritically mystifying, Monroeleaves intact the "gaps, contradictions, and shadows" inherent in his subject, demonstrating that"it should still be possible to appreciate the work as art that moves, confuses, agitates, orfascinates."

Alexei Monroe received a PhD from the University of Kent. He has published many articles on contemporary music, culture, and politics and is the author of the Plural Machine blog.