Mute: Laibach does Wagner; announce the opening of the Laibach Kunst Exhibition

Mode label mates Laibach have always done things differently, and done them well. Now, the Slovenian art collective are taken on Wagner in a performance titled, VOLKSWAGNER. The event is taking place in Ljubljana on the 18th of April 2009, at the Gallus Hall, and it’s promising to be the event of a life time! Later this summer, Laibach will be taking over Museum Sztuki in Lodz (Poland) with the band presenting 10 different installations. The exhibit will run from from 16 May – 23 August 2009.

Read on for the full press release, and some visuals!

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Press release:
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LAIBACH

VOLKSWAGNER

18 April 2009 – Ljubljana

Collaboration between Laibach and the RTV Slovenia Symphony Orchestra, composed and conducted by Izidor Leitinger
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LAIBACH KUNST – RECAPITULATION ’09

MUSEUM SZTUKI, LODZ (POLAND) 26 May – 23 August 2009
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Following the release and the UK premiere of LaiBachKunstDerFuge, inspired by Bach’s Art of Fugue, LAIBACH announce a new project. VOLKSWAGNER is a 70-minute sonic suite in three acts based on Richard Wagner’s Overture To The Tannhäuser And The Singers’ Contest At The Wartburg, Siegfried-Idyll and The Ride Of The Valkyries as well as details of a major exhibition in Lodz, Poland opening on 26 May 2009.

With Volkswagner, Laibach and Izidor Leitinger will interpret some of Wagner’s better known musical motifs, using the jazz form as a starting point and combine them into a unified symphonic electronic suite.

In the 1930s, Hitler’s obsession with Wagner inspired him to initiate a formal prohibition and destruction of all degenerate art (Entartete Kunst) which was not in accordance with the Wagnerian aesthetics and canon, as Hitler understood it. In addition to Jewish authors and others who were not in favour of the regime, the prohibition affected the whole avant-garde and modernism, and in music (Entartete Musik) all of jazz, primarily due to its “primitive” African-American roots.

During this time, Hitler sketched the first outline of the automobile that would become known as the ‘people’s car’, the Volks-Wagen or Käfer (beetle) and, in an effort to modernise Germany and reduce unemployment, began work on the construction of the world’s first super roads, the Autobahn.

After the Second World War the Beetle became the most popular people’s car in the world; a cult object, a pop icon and a symbol of freedom and modernity. Similarly, “degenerate” jazz music became another symbol of freedom and modernity

With this project Laibach will attempt to prove that understanding and interpretation are important components of the aesthetic and content-based definitions of the world and that Hitler was greatly mistaken regarding Wagner – except with regard to the conception of the beetle automobile, which, with its Beatnik soul and humorous form, became his largest art work and indirectly his greatest economic achievement.

Volkswagner will premiere in Ljubljana on the 18th of April 2009, at the Gallus Hall, Cankarjev Dom in a collaboration with the RTV Slovenia Symphony Orchestra, composed and conducted by Izidor Leitinger.

Museum Sztuki in Lodz (Poland) will host a Laibach exhibition from 16 May – 23 August 2009. Spanning the different time periods of Laibach, the exhibition will run over 10 rooms with Laibach presenting the 10 Items of Covenant, 10 statements, 10 different installations.

Laibach created some significant exhibitions between 1980 – 1985 and subsequently stepped out of the galleries, exhibiting only sporadically at different occasions, so this will be a great opportunity to draw a line and examine the other, less known, side of Laibach.

The day after the opening of exhibition Laibach will also perform LAIBACHKUNSTDERFUGER at the Filharmonia Łódzka im. Artura Rubinsteina.

http://www.laibach.nsk.si/volkswagner/
http://www.filharmonia.lodz.pl/en/
http://www.msl.org.pl/