NSK
NSK / Neue Slowenische Kunst [New Slovenian Art] in its structure is a simple and yet complex mechanism which makes any precise explanation impossible. NSK began operating in 1984 as a large collective, an organization, a union of various groups brought together by their shared way of thinking and similar style of expression through different media. The main NSK groups are Laibach, Irwin, Noordung, New Collectivism and the Department of Pure and Applied Philosophy. There are also a number of flexible subdivisions which emerge as the need arises and dissolves under their own inertia. Each of the groups
primarily works within its own medium; nevertheless their bonds are firm and fruitful. Members of the group meet on a regular basis, they talk, discuss and plan major common campaigns, test aesthetic and other preferences, exchange ideas and contexts, travel together, and so on. Laibach began working in 1980 and was mainly oriented to the popular music media, although it was associated with different levels of work from the beginning, including gallery and theatre installations. The Irwin artists group formed themselves within the function of NSK biographers, recording NSK archetypes on canvas and in history. The Noordung Theatre (formerly Red Pilot and the Scipion Nasice Sisters Theatre before that) assumes ritualistic NSK contexts and also operates with religious patterns. Beside these three groups the most active within NSK are the New Collectivism Design Studio and the Department of Pure and Applied Philosophy. The former obviously works with design (posters, records, covers, books, etc.) and the latter mainly with critical aspects of classic philosophy. In spite of their links each of the groups works according to its own internal logic, its rules and principles of work, whereas they are connected by certain contextual and formal aspects, and this aspect is what forms NSK. B.S.
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