Editing Laibach (section)

== Aesthetics, image and controversy ==
[[File:LAIBACH The Thrower.jpg|thumb|left|upright=1.2|Laibach 1983 visual work ''The Thrower'']]
At the early stage of their career, Laibach's visuals employed [[socialist realism|socialist realist]] mining iconography,<ref name="Janjatović169"/> and later the band incorporated, alongside influences from socialist realism, influences from [[Art in Nazi Germany|Nazi art]] and [[Futurism|Italian futurism]] to their imagery.<ref name="Janjatović170"/> On their early promotional posters the band used black crosses from the works of [[Russian avant-garde]] artist and art theorist [[Kazimir Malevich]],<ref name="Janjatović169"/> later incorporating a black cross into their logo, consisting of a cross encircled with a gear.<ref name="Janjatović169"/> In the mid-1980s, when the usage of the name Laibach was banned in Yugoslavia, the group used posters with black crosses without band name to advertise their performances,<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.artmargins.com/content/review/griffin.html |title=A R T M a r g i n s - Winifred M. Griffin: Review of'' Laibach ''and Irwin |access-date=22 April 2007 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070312073938/http://www.artmargins.com/content/review/griffin.html |archive-date=12 March 2007 }}</ref> and their debut album was released with the black cross and without any text on the cover.<ref name="Janjatović171"/> Cross imagery, and variations on the cross are apparent in many Laibach recordings and publications. Some Laibach releases feature artwork by the [[Communism|communist]] and early [[Dada]] artist [[John Heartfield]].<ref name="Janjatović171"/> The usage of Heartfield's anti-Nazi work depicting swastika consisting of four bloodied axes on the inner sleeve of the album ''[[Opus Dei (album)|Opus Dei]]'' caused controversies in some European countries.<ref name="Janjatović171"/>

The visual imagery of Laibach's art has been described as "radically ambiguous".<ref name="monroe76">{{cite book|last=Monroe|first=Alexei|title=Interrogation Machine: Laibach and NSK|year=2005|publisher=MIT Press|location=|page=76}}</ref> An early example of this ambiguity would be the [[woodcut]] entitled ''The Thrower'', also known as ''Metalec'' (''The Metal Worker''). This work features a monochrome silhouette of a figure with a clenched fist holding a hammer aloft. The work could be seen both as promoting industrial protest or as a symbol of industrial pride. Another aspect of this woodcut is the large typefaced word ''LAIBACH'', evoking memories of the Nazi occupation of Slovenia. This piece was featured prominently during the band's 1983 interview for ''TV tednik''.<ref name="monroe161">{{cite book|last=Monroe|first=Alexei|title=Interrogation Machine: Laibach and NSK|year=2005|publisher=MIT Press|location=|page=161}}</ref>

Laibach has frequently been accused of both [[far left]] and [[far right]] political stances due to their use of uniforms and [[totalitarian]]-style [[aesthetics]]. They were also accused of being [[neo-nationalism|neo-nationalists]]. When confronted with such accusations, Laibach is quoted as replying with the ambiguous response "We are [[fascist]]s as much as [[Paintings by Adolf Hitler|Hitler was a painter]]".<ref name="VH1">{{cite web|url=http://www.vh1.com/artists/az/laibach/bio.jhtml|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20040612193631/http://www.vh1.com/artists/az/laibach/bio.jhtml|url-status=dead|archive-date=12 June 2004|website=VH1.com|title=Laibach Biography|access-date = 22 April 2007}}</ref> Laibach concerts have sometimes aesthetically appeared as political rallies, and the members of Laibach are notorious for rarely stepping out of character. When interviewed, they often answer in wry manifestos, showing a paradoxical lust for, and condemnation of, authority.<ref name="VH1"/>

Finnish author and nationalist Tuomas Tähti disclosed in his 2019 book ''Nationalistin henkinen horisontti'' that Laibach member Ivan "Jani" Novak told him in March 2015 that the band is a communist group and most of their work is connected to communism.<ref>{{cite book |last=Tähti |first=Tuomas |title=Nationalistin henkinen horisontti |language=fi |location=Espoo |publisher=Tuomas Tähti |publication-date=May 2019 |page=145 |isbn=978-952-94-1815-2}}</ref>

British musician and journalist [[Richard Wolfson (musician)|Richard Wolfson]] wrote of the group:

{{quote|Laibach's method is extremely simple, effective and horribly open to misinterpretation. First of all, they absorb the mannerisms of the enemy, adopting all the seductive trappings and symbols of state power, and then they exaggerate everything to the edge of parody... Next they turn their focus to highly charged issues—the West's fear of immigrants from Eastern Europe, the power games of the [[European Union|EU]], the analogies between Western [[democracy]] and totalitarianism.<ref>Richard Wolfson, [https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/music/rockandjazzmusic/3601856/Warriors-of-weirdness.html "Warriors of weirdness"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220205093612/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/music/rockandjazzmusic/3601856/Warriors-of-weirdness.html |date=5 February 2022 }}, ''[[The Daily Telegraph]]'', 4 September 2003</ref>}}

Slovenian philosopher [[Slavoj Žižek]] stated about the group after their performance in North Korea:

{{quote|Quite often [[libertarian left]]ists were embarrassed by Laibach. On the one hand, of course, they had to support Laibach. But they were very uneasy about how to take Laibach. Their primordial fear—which is for me the first sign that they didn't understand anything about Laibach—was to claim that Laibach is a great ironic spectacle of subtly mocking, making fun of authority and so on. But then, almost always in my experience—I experienced this with my leftist friends—they added a worry: "What if people will not get it properly, what if people would take Laibach too seriously and perceive, or rather mispercieve, what is their ironic spectacle as real celebration of totalitarianism?" No, I think things are much more complex. Laibach is not simply making fun of totalitarianism. Laibach is bringing out the authoritarian feature which is present in most societies, even in the most democratic societies. [...] I think that Laibach is deeply aware [...] of this deep ambiguity of even the most democratic power. And they are trying to bring this authoritarian streak out even with a certain open fascination. There is no distance there. They are not making fun of it. They are openly enjoying it. So that's the traumatic message of Laibach: staging the real of power. [...] Usual left liberal critics or public of Laibach, they are reading Laibach along the lines of this standard humanist gap, searching behind the strict, totalitarian mask of Laibach for warm, humane persons. They want to find behind the mask of Laibach—all this low bass industrial totalitarian music—this guarantee: "Don't be afraid, behind this mask they are just ordinary warm people like ourselves." No, the message of Laibach is just the opposite one. It's not: "Don't be afraid, beneath our totalitarian mask we are warm, normal, compassionate people like you". No, it's—even if we look at our everyday life in the West, like normal, compassionate people, all the disgusting spectacles that we are doing in the West, charity, helping others and so on—we are really what we play to be. We are monsters, there is no humanity behind it. So, you see, it's not about North Korea. You will not learn a lot from Laibach about North Korea. You will learn a lot about our own anxieties and hypocrisies.<ref>[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NRfgKrmI9Po "Slavoj Žižek introducing: Laibach in North Korea"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230819132825/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NRfgKrmI9Po |date=19 August 2023 }}, ''[[YouTube]]'', 4 September 2003</ref>}}