NSK and Zizek challenging the ruling order.

There are artists who are finding that the only way out of the neutralising effect of the art world and all its related institutions is to over-identify with the ideology of the ruling order. These are artists who are interested in challenging the forces of capitalism and questioning the pragmatic apathy of other art practices which seem to rely on the ruling order for their existence.

The underlying premise of this particular art practice lies in the strategy which subverts the ideology of the "father state" by abolishing the subjects necessary ironic distance towards the system.This ironic distance is necessary for the state to function.Thus, by taking the ideology of the state more seriously than the state itself these artists succeed in revealing the shadow- side, the "obscene super-ego underside of the system ."

NSK - Neue Slowenische Kunst - are a Slovenian art collective who have been active since 1987 who are known fot their provocative installations, performances and interventions which combine "retrogardism and a radical ambiguity".

NSK are made of of three different components: - Laibach ( a musical group who take their name from the German name given to Ljubijana during the occupation in WW2.

- Cosmokinetic Cabinet Noordung ( a theatre group).

- IRWIN ( a five men art collective).

NSK were a part of the Slovenian opposition movement to the Tito regime in the 1980's and were heavily influenced and supported by the philosopher Slavoj Zizek. Zizek's writing is based on a combination of Marxist politics, Hegelian philosophy and Lacanian psychoanalysis.

One of the component groups of NSK , the art collective IRWIN, received an award in 1987 for their poster celebrating the day of youth and Tito's birthday. This resulted in a scandal when it was revealed that IRWIN had submitted an old Nazi poster with slight alterations. ( NSK unashamedly appropriate images from the past- a pastiche of pre-existingmaterials- in order to 'reveal connections between seemingly unrelated entities').NSK succeeded in revealing the discomforting possibility that Slovenia, a communist country, was more aligned with Fascism than it would want to reveal and the posters were subsequently torn down.