Many fans were keenly awaiting the expected new Paris recorded album however Laibach were uncomfortable with the material and simply abandoned it; a completely different new project began instead and which would be released as Kapital - oddly enough this had also been the title of the scrapped work. The live shows until the release of Kapital just continued with the Sympathy for the Devil set. The first concert of 1991 was at Kranj in Slovenia on February 1st then followed by a small four-date Italian tour in March. Another concert appearance was on May 24th at the Hungaro Carrot Festival in Budapest.
June 25th, Slovenia declares independence from Yugoslavia. Croatia follows Slovenia and announced its independence on the same day. The next day the Yugoslavian army began the war in Slovenia but Serbia had no real interest in Slovenia and a truce brokered by the European Community was signed on July 7th. However Croatia was a different matter, by the time of their cease-fire in January 2nd 1992 they had lost over a third of its land.
During Slovenia's ten-day war Laibach were in Ljubljana working in the studios and did not react publicly to war. Laibach were blamed by some for the war, Radio Zagreb phoned Laibach and demanded to know if they were happy now that war is here and suggested it was what they had always hoped for. The NSK division of NK however put up war related posters around Ljubljana. Six days after the Brioni Agreement Laibach performed at the Big Moon festival in Berlin, this was their last concert of 1991 as they concentrated on their new album Kapital. Towards the end of the year they began recording in London, while recording a couple of Laibach members were spotted at a Public Enemy concert therefore was not a complete surprise when a rap song was heard on Kapital. The album came out on April 21st 1992, with the single Wirtschaft Ist Tot (The Economy Is Dead). As Eastern Europe emerges from Communism Laibach warns against the headlong rush to Capitalism, losing certain ideological and spiritual values to a market economy. Kapital is Laibach's rewriting or sequel to Karl Marx's Das Kapital to make it relevant again for the future. With the far-reaching impact of the world-wide credit crunch of 2008, Marx's Das Kapital suddenly gained renewed interest and certainly many Laibach fans made connections with the album and the financial turmoil. The music style was quite different to any of their previous albums, being icy operatic techno though still militant, giving it an archaic and futuristic sound. The LP version included an extra track - Steel Trust by Germania and Bertrand Burgulat. The album contained a lot of guest vocals however for the tour Milan takes over all of the singing including some of the samples. The United States of Ameropa Tour began in Norwich at the Waterfront on May 13th. If Laibach's techno style was a surprise then their appearance on stage was also quite a shock, completely covered from head to toe in gold body paint. With lights shinning from below they looked like totalitarian statues, however it was not the first time. In the early eighties the Milan had occasionally smeared his face with honey and sprinkled on gold dust in concert. They toured Europe before moving on to the American part of the tour in July. September 3rd, Laibach played their first ever concert in Greece at the Amphitheatre in Athens in the cradle of democracy, where the American director Michael Benson films a short interview with two Greek ultra nationalists at the concert for the film, Predictions of Fire. This was a major documentary filmed between 1991 and 1995 examining the NSK's role in the break up of Yugoslavia. The film looks specifically at NSK's work in relation to the political upheaval of Yugoslavia and to some extent Eastern Europe.
The NSK were also documenting their own work in the form of a book, simply titled Neue Slowenische Kunst, it showcased the work of NSK in general up to the year 1989. It was put together by New Collectivism and released in 1991. This book is a compilation of the important work of the various individual groups of the NSK. It is still by far the best NSK related book, featuring over 500 photographs, various texts such as speeches, poetry, scripts and interviews from the various departments for music, painting, theatre, philosophy, video, film, architecture, design, etc. Laibach's work is well-documented featuring selected interview clips, poems, speeches, discography along with pictures of the records plus other Laibach artwork. It is very much a presentation of the work of the NSK rather than a book about the organisation. The Neue Slowenische Kunst book is highly recommended, unfortunately it has long been out of print and now usually sells at a highly inflated price on the second-hand market.
October 14th, after tours in Europe and America Laibach began the Slovene Kapital Tour in their hometown at the Termoelektrarna II and ended the tour in Murska Sobota at the Cinema Centre on December 18th.
The political events taking place in Yugoslavia at the beginning of the 1990s led to the NSK developing their own State. Their state was a 'State in Time' offering an alternative to the political fixations on territories, ethnic groups and borders that caused all sorts of problems not just in ex-Yugoslavia though it is still the main example. As the disintegration of the Utopian dream of Yugoslavia unfolded, the NSK began creating the new Utopia State. Parallel to the declaration of independence of the Republic of Slovenia in 1991, NSK, previously a 'collective or organisation', declared their transformation into a 'State'. (More on the NSK passport)
The NSK State was idea developed by Irwin, initially as an artistic concept but quickly evolved. While the NSK state is not a physical state it could materialise anywhere in the world in the form of an embassy. Between 10th May and 10th June 1992 the NSK State materialised for the first time in Moscow. An NSK embassy was opened in a Moscow private apartment at Leninsky Prospect 12. The embassy was used as a live installation for the project featuring exhibitions of art works by Irwin/NSK, lectures and public discussions were led by guests (Apt-Art) - invited critics, theoreticians, artists from Slovenia, Russia, Croatia, Serbia. Video works by Laibach and a play by Noordung was also presented. While in Moscow on June 6th, Irwin unfurled a giant black square on Red Square recreating Malevich's 1915 painting 'Black Square on Red Square' - Michael Benson filmed the action including a short interview with a policeman who allowed the display to continue. The aim of this event was to confront the similar social contexts of the ex-Soviet Union and ex-Yugoslavia and looks at the factors determining different experiences of art in different social circumstances. A book titled 'How the East Sees the East' documents the successful event, published by Loza Gallery.
Part 11
