CRACK

The 33rd Ljubljana Biennial

of Graphic Arts

CRACK
SLAVS AND TATARS
The 33rd Ljubljana Biennial
of Graphic Arts

SLAVS AND TATARS

 TABLE OF CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION
SLAVS AND TATARS
5–10

LOW BLOWS: MARTIN KRPAN,

TOP LISTA NADREALISTA,
AND EQUALISING SATIRE
VID SIMONITI
17–31

CANDID CAMERAS: HUMOUR AND

COLLECTIVITY IN DARK TIMES
M. CONSTANTINE
45–60

PUNKY SAMIZDAT
DAVID CROWLEY
73–92

MICROPOLITICS OF MEMES
EMILY APTER
99–113

Lin May Saeed, Reiniger, 2006.

Installation view at the 33rd Ljubljana
Biennial of Graphic Arts, 2019. 3 CRACK UP – CRACK DOWN
 VISUAL ESSAYS

TOP LISTA NADREALISTA: A GLOSSARY OF TERMS

GORAN VOJNOVIĆ
11–16

NO MORE FUCHS LEFT TO GIVE

ARTHUR FOURNIER & RAPHAEL KOENIG
33–40

SHY RADICALS: THE ANTISYSTEMIC POLITICS

OF THE MILITANT INTROVERT
HAMJA AHSAN
41–44

BETWEEN THREE REVOLUTIONS: NOTES ON

THE HISTORY OF IRANIAN POLITICAL SATIRE
MOHAMMAD SALEMY
61–68 SLAVS AND TATARS
The graphic gets a bad rap. Some the relatively new technology
TAKING CARE OF YOURSELF IS criticism is admittedly deserved. increasingly accessible to emerging
DETRIMENTAL TO YOUR HEALTH Some less so. video artists in the 1970s.
Contrary to popular perception, What initially distinguished
ALENKA PIRMAN & KULA there is nothing millennial about the the ensemble of activities comprising
69–72 graphic arts. Their origins date to the graphic arts – engraving,
prehistory, when stencils of hands were lithography, screen-printing, to
made in caves in Asia, Europe, and the name a few – from their more
BEING OUT OF TUNE: FAVOURITE SONGS Americas some 35,000 to 40,000 years edified counterparts – painting and
OF MY NEIGHBOURS, ABUSERS, AND DESPOTS ago. It is the Industrial Era, though, sculpture – was the ability to be
that indulged the graphic arts as reproduced, first by hand, then by
AUGUSTIN MAURS never before. The means of impressing machine. But a work of art draws its
93–96 text and image on various surfaces economic if not symbolic value from
multiplied throughout the 20th- being unique and unavailable to
century, as did the facilities to do so. all. Art trades on singularity and
ABSURDMYSTIC After all, the history of various artistic individuality, of both the creation and
media is often tied to the economic creator, too; the myth of the individual
METAHAVEN exploitation of affiliated technologies; artist was born in the Renaissance,
97–98 Homage to the VHS cassette by Studio the pornography industry’s use of nurtured in the Romantic period,
Tatuażu Manta, Wrocław, Poland. VHS cassettes, for instance, made and greatly embellished in our

4 5 CRACK UP – CRACK DOWN

 INTRODUCTION SLAVS AND TATARS

age of celebrity. The graphic arts Slavs and Tatars embraced the
tried to change this, to storm the phenomenal and phenomenological
Bastille of The One.¹ And like other promiscuity of “the graphic” early
revolutions, they made a good run in our practice. For the first three
of it. But ultimately failed. or four years, our work took place
The problem with revolutions, exclusively within the confines of print,
though, is not their failure or be it the pamphlet, poster, or book.
tendency towards filial cannibalism. The affordability and reproducibility of
If revolutions are fluid, as Zygmunt print allowed us to share work directly
Baumann has written, the risk lies with colleagues, friends, and the
instead in their calcification. Today, general public, bypassing the mediation
in an age of increased automation, of institutions, the crushing costs of
Cevdet Erek, Circular Week Ruler (Slovene artificial intelligence, and Big Data, art handlers, and not least the carbon
edition), 2019. From the Print Portfolio, the graphic arts have become an footprint of crating.
The 33rd Ljubljana Biennial of Graphic Arts,
2019.
arrière-guard stronghold of those It is this same auratic
obsessed with tactility. How ironic indiscretion which drew us to the
that a medium whose significance lay Ljubljana Biennial of Graphic Arts.
in its reproducibility clings desperately The Biennial’s focus on graphic
to outmoded notions of authorship and editions, prints, and other works
distinction.² As a joinder to the arts, on paper historically allowed for
the graphic has reversed course from a democracy (with a small d) of
its original raison d’être. access: print was relatively cheap,

Miroslav Šutej, The 16th Ljubljana International Biennial of Graphic Arts, poster, 1985.

not only to make, more importantly, and Egypt, Yugoslavia’s leadership of

to send and share. That the graphic the non-aligned movement articulated
arts were championed by the Socialist a crucial platform for anti-imperialist,
Federal Republic of Yugoslavia was anti-colonial, and anti-racist thought
no coincidence: it was a resolutely and action. But both the geopolitical
internationalist medium of the importance and medium specificity
mid-20th-century, one intimately of the Ljubljana Biennial came under
associated with labour. attack in the late 1980s and early
1. 2. Now in its 33rd edition, the 1990s. The end of the Cold War and
Akin to an Abrahamic Even more egregious
revolution in reverse, the than the fetishisation
Ljubljana Biennial of Graphic Arts the subsequent Yugoslav Wars made
graphic arts could have, of the graphic arts is has a long and esteemed history. a mockery of the country’s non-aligned
would have, and should that of photography.
have returned a multiplicity The astronomical prices
During the Cold War, Yugoslavia’s legacy, while conceptual art’s increased
to the reigning unicity of certain photographer’s non-aligned position made the viability, both institutionally and
and rarity of Art with a books, the long lines of
capital A. With increasing fans awaiting a signature
exhibition one of the precious few economically, did away with traditional
references to museums as of a new publication at meeting points possible between artists understandings of artistic forms.
the successors to cathedrals, Paris Photo, all must have
as the temples of culture, Walter Benjamin turning Rat (War), a drawing by Robert, a 14-year-old refugee from Foča (Bosnia and Herzegovina, from the Warsaw Pact countries and In an effort to re-engage
it’s only a matter of time in his unmarked Catalonian a former republic of Yugoslavia), 1993. those in NATO. Along with India with the heritage of the Biennial,
before some will start grave.
writing A-t, as is done
with G-d. 6 7 CRACK UP – CRACK DOWN
 INTRODUCTION SLAVS AND TATARS

to follow the lead of our retroactive a similarly fertile avenue for satire
mascot, Hoja Nasreddin – the wise- in renewed graphic forms, such as
fool often found riding backwards the meme or protest poster.
on his donkey – and look to the In the Biennial exhibition
past to better understand the and in this volume, we invite the
present.³ The late 19th and early public to revisit the two historical
20th centuries saw a proliferation of G-spots of the Biennial, if you will:
satirical journals across the globe: the geopolitical and the graphic. With
Germany’s Simplicissimus, the United a focus on our regional remit – in
Kingdom’s Punch, the Caucasus’ particular Eastern and South Eastern
Molla Nasreddin, France’s L’Assiette Europe – the contributors to this
au Beurre, or Slovenia’s Pavliha, to publication tell various stories about
name just a few. The affordability satire and question its relevance today.
Marionette of Martin Krpan, 1950. Made of print offered a tonic for those David Crowley examines episodes in
at the School of Applied Arts under the brutalised by the mechanisms of 20th-century Eastern Europe where
guidance of Božo and Ajša Pengov.
modernity, the Industrial Revolution punk offered the passable ambiguity
in Europe and colonialism in the and encryption often associated with
František Kupka, L’Assiette au Beurre, Stand-up comedy performance by Dragoș Cristian (pictured), Boštjan Gorenc - Pižama, Middle East, Africa, and South Asia. satire. Emily Apter offers a much-
magazine cover, 1902. Marina Orsag, Pavlo Voytovich, and Anja Wutej during the public programme of the It is no coincidence that the Ljubljana needed critical study of the meme
33rd Ljubljana Biennial of Graphic Arts, 2019.
3. 4. Biennial and the Bandung Conference as a form of micropolitics, mapping
Mike Kelley had a particular Anthony Gardner,
fondness for artists as fools, “Curating Solidarity”,
of Asia-Africa débuted the same out its philological baggage and
which he contrasted with paper presented at Axis we considered “the graphic” not as forms, there has been a vigorous year, 1955.4 Today, increased access potential. Vid Simoniti underscores
the curative role: “Beuys had of Solidarity: Landmarks,
a notion of art as a curative Platforms, Futures, 23‒25
a medium per se, but rather as debate of late about who exactly to hardware and software, combined the equally subversive and conventional
process. I don’t have that February 2019, Tate an agency. Such recourse imposes constitutes “the people”. For more with social media platforms, provides role of satire across specifically
delusion. Art doesn’t cure Modern, London, U.K.
you, it makes you aware
an editorial spine on an often supine than a millennium, satire has been
of the problems you have. formal exercise. For this edition of the a particularly effective, if contested,
Art used to be a personal
sickness that showed you
Biennial, satire becomes the backbone. genre to explore this and other
were better than other In particular, we asked: How does questions.
people. In actuality art is
just saying ‘let’s just point
graphic language, designed for clarity Often lauded for its ability to
this out and we can talk or not, allow for the ambiguity crucial speak truth to power, satire has proven
about it, I’m no different
from you, I’m no better
for art’s affective potential, as well itself to be perhaps the original petri
than you, I’m not special, as its infra-political resistance? Slavs dish in a world of post-truth bacteria.
I’m no genius that cut off
my ear. I’m just another
and Tatars have long held the view A many-headed creature, satire has
schmuck like you.’ What that critique, on its own, is a worthy been considered by turns a form of
I like about Beuys is that
he had a very egalitarian
if rather straightforward, stodgy, task. popular philosophy, biting critique,
idea of art. I don’t believe The frontal blow – sharp language, or a conservative genre, given its
that either. A lot of people
don’t have the talent, the
explicit message – leave us wanting. moralising inclinations. It thrives in
strength to stand outside What is far more difficult is to pass a periods of authoritarian rule, from the
the culture and make a
fool of themselves. He was
whack as a smack, a sock as a smooch. rich tradition of communist humour
a professional fool. What To deliver the critique with the airs in Central and Eastern Europe to the
I dislike about a lot of
contemporary artists is that
of a festive grin, teeth gritted or not. many examples from the Middle East.
they want to be hipsters. Though each enjoys a distinct history, Today, the return of strongman rule
They’re not willing to be
fools, to put themselves
both the graphic arts and satire claim in the West has witnessed a boom in
on the line in some shared to speak for and to the people. With comedy and satire.
emotional way. They want to Molla Nasraddin, Vol. 25, No. 13, Baku, Pavliha, Vol. IV, No. 8, Ljubljana, 1947. Edited Simplicissimus, Vol. 34, No. 13, Munich, 1929.
be better than other people,
the rise of populism across the globe, Despite the dizzying turns Azerbaijan, 1930. Founded by Jalil by Frane Milčinski, cover illustration by France Magazine cover by Karl Arnold.
and that’s to me worse than in often reductive and revanchist of recent events, we would do well Mammadguluzadeh. Uršič, Slovene Association of Journalists.
wanting to be the outsider
and tragic and a suicidal
and all that crap.” 8 9 CRACK UP – CRACK DOWN
 INTRODUCTION

Balkan examples, from the Slovenian Why satire? Why not? would be a good
archetypical folk hero Martin place to start. A former comedian
Krpan to the Bosnian TV sketch is now Prime Minister of Slovenia,
show Top Lista Nadrealista. Finally, and another comedian is President
M. Constantine explores the nexus of Ukraine. In recent years, many
of technology and affect which often have noted with a mix of surprise and
accompanies satire, via the case of desperation, that reality is outstripping
home videos shot in Sarajevo during fiction. Those in Eastern Europe, if
the Balkan wars. Contributions by not the Global South, would argue
Metahaven, Mohammad Salemy, that this is nothing new. As the

TOP LISTA
Goran Vojnović, Hamja Ahsan, famous Russian proverb goes, the
Slovenia’s prime minister Marjan Šarec doing
a double take, 2019.
Alenka Pirman with KULA, and future is certain, it’s the past which
Arthur Fournier and Raphael is unpredictable.

NADREALISTA
Koenig provide brief encounters with
Alexander Vvedensky, introfadas,
and Eduard Fuchs, amongst others.

A GLOSSARY OF TERMS
GORAN VOJNOVIĆ

The cult comedy show, Top Lista Nadrealista EPISODE: NJU PRIMITIVS
(The Surrealists’ Top Chart), which originally (NEW PRIMITIVES)
ran from late 1984 to 1991, is one of the most THEME: RAT U FAMILIJI POPUŠLIĆ
ominous examples of satire foreshadowing (WAR IN THE SCREWEDINGTON
reality in recent decades. Growing out of FAMILY)
the New Primitivism movement, the show
championed a local approach to conflict In the late 1980s, the conditions in Yugoslavia
and language, even borrowing slang from were perfect for satire. The country was
Sarajevo mahalas (or “hoods”), and including invisibly disintegrating before the eyes of its
many Turkish loanwords. Writer Goran inhabitants and this invisible disintegration
Vojnović has compiled a glossary of terms created many visible cracks in the already
and phrases that have influenced (and been fragile multi-ethnic society. It is almost
influenced by) colloquial language throughout impossible to distinguish between all the
The Surrealists’ Top Chart viewing public and crises of that time: self-management
beyond. socialism was in crisis, the Communist
Party was in crisis, brotherhood and unity
were in crisis, the country’s economy was
in crisis. Life in Yugoslavia was thus often
on the verge of the absurd and one needed
to distort reality only slightly to get to
the grotesque. Thus, the New Primitivism
art movement emerged, whose most
Volodymyr Zelenskiy, President of Ukraine and comedian on the set of Servant of the People prominent creation was the satirical TV
television series in Kyiv, Ukraine, 2019. series Top Lista Nadrealista.

10 11 CRACK UP – CRACK DOWN

 TOP LISTA NADREALISTA GORAN VOJNOVIĆ

Top Lista Nadrealista may have been defined the last days of Yugoslavia, that they his apartment because he won the Prize SELO VESELO
conceived as a Balkan variant of Monty were not capable of recognising themselves Abduction game show. (JOYFUL VILLAGE)
Python’s Flying Circus, but its dark vision in the story about the Swedish refugees, This sentence reflects the Sisyphean SISANJE MOTKE
surpassed the British model. By mocking the the separatist Eskimos, and the dead resistance of the Yugoslavs against the (SUCKING ON A STICK)
socialist Absurdistan, the Surrealists created penguins? Instead of recognising this, they unjust social system. But the absurd cannot
not only a lucid critique of society, but even said, “Ma zdravo! Skrati priču! U Jugoslaviji be resisted, and Todor Zijan does not really “Jozo je katolik, ovaj je pravoslavan, ja sam
more so, an ominous picture of the near problem! Zdravo!” (“Good riddance! Cut the resist the TV crew. He only gives them musliman, ali mi to svi radimo jer je to prastari
future in which the grotesque would turn into story short! Trouble in Yugoslavia! Good a piece of his mind. But to give someone a običaj koji svi poštujemo” (“Jozo is Catholic,
a horror show. Even decades later, people riddance!”). And then focused on the next piece of one’s mind is just another expression this one is Orthodox, and I am Muslim, but
would reproach themselves for not taking news item. for the consolation prize of the losing team. that’s not important because we all do it,
the Sarajevo jokers seriously. “Svašta sam im nagovorio” (“I told them it’s an ancient tradition that we respect”),
The Yugoslavs laughed at a member all sorts”), repeated the Yugoslavs when they explains Junuz Đipalo in the selo Veselo
of the Popušlići (Screwedington) family MA ZDRAVO! returned from the municipalities, esdekajev (Joyful Village), where people are still
who, engaged in domestic warfare inside (GOOD RIDDANCE!) (the IRS), the post offices and the banks. “enmoistened” and perform the collective
their apartment, victoriously shouts “Zauzeli ZGEMBO ADISLIĆ That meant, “I didn’t achieve anything, but sisanje motke (stick sucking). With a laugh,
smo WC! Zauzeli smo WC!” (“We took I told them where to shove it.” In the struggles the New Primitives tell us that, underneath
over the toilet! We took over the toilet!”), Some years ago, a Croatian TV presenter with the system that were lost in advance, all the religions in Yugoslavia, primitivism still
without realising that they were all Popušlići tried in vain to persuade Branko Đurić to the Yugoslavs liked to have the final world. rules and connects its people.
(Screwedingtons). Just like a boiling frog, say “Ma zdravo!” (“Good riddance!”) the Or rather, the final curse. However, the primitive and backward
the Yugoslavs spent the last years of their way he said it while playing the role of sela Vesela (Joyful Villages), which the
existence being cooked in black humour. Zgembo Adislić in the sketches of Top Lista Surrealists joyfully mocked, laughed last.
The Surrealists’ humour gradually grew Nadrealista. Đuro did not want to return HRKLJUŠ The disintegration of Yugoslavia and the
blacker and blacker until people realised, to a world that had been long gone. Or he (HRKLJUŠ) war that followed also led to the villages
albeit too late, that its blackness was merely perhaps no longer wanted to speak the marching into the cities. The urban culture
the ashes of their former country. language of the Surrealists. The presenter Hrkljuš is a fictional sport created for of New Primitivism disappeared overnight
stubbornly persisted, but Đuro, the most television, says Wikipedia, originating in and left an emptiness that has not been filled
recognisable face of Top Lista Nadrealista the imagination of the creators of Top Lista yet. Thirty years after the end of Yugoslavia,
SRANJE U RUANDI other than Nele (Slobodan Janković, alias Nadrealista. Hrkljuš is a caricature of the many Yugoslav cities are merely big sela
(SHIT IN RWANDA) Dr. Nele Karajlić), did not want to go back. Dervish ceremony in which the participants Vesela (Joyful Villages) ruled by trash and
NEMIRI U ŠVEDSKOJ Or he could not. Perhaps he felt that make a cut on their forehead with a knife, tradition. That is why, in the Balkans today,
(UNREST IN SWEDEN) it was improper to laugh at something bandage it, and then start hitting it with it is easier to imagine people, rather than
that had turned out to be infinitely sad. the Quran to make the bleeding stronger. new surrealists, sucking on a stick.
In the Nemiri u Švedskoj (Unrest in Sweden) (Whatever it was, I myself was very pleased According to Wikipedia, the rules of hrkljuš
sketch, the Surrealists staged the Yugoslavs’ he did not give in.) are as follows: the players stand in a circle;
relation to their own end with brutal precision. Taking the Surrealists out of the the leader of the game throws a rag ball JA ČITAM
The Yugoslavs experienced the disintegration temporal and spatial context in which they to someone in the circle; the players begin (I READ)
of their country so indifferently, as if it were originated inevitably leads to the banalisation passing the ball to each other; whoever drops OTVORENO O JEZIKU
something happening to the Swedes. The of their work, limiting it to superficial, even if the ball leaves the circle, hitting themselves (OPENLY ABOUT LANGUAGE)
Eskimos wanted to secede, and penguins first-rate, entertainment. The Surrealists are on the forehead with their fist and shouting,
were the ones dying. We find an echo of simply a composite part of the bloody end “Do mene! Do mene!” (“My bad!”). When One of the Surrealists’ most absurd
this sketch in Tanović’s No Man’s Land, in of Yugoslavia, which is why, even if it seems the lead player shouts “Hrkljuš!”, the player prophecies – which actually came true – is
the scene where a Bosnian soldier, reading otherwise to us, they disappeared together holding the ball is the winner. Hrkljuš is any precisely the one whose absurdity the
a newspaper at the front, suddenly exclaims: with it. At some point, someone said to player that has been eliminated. For them, people living in today’s Croatia, Bosnia and
“Uuu, sranje u Ruandi!” (“Look at this shit those times: “Ma zdravo!” (“Good riddance!”) the elimination is an act of humiliation, but Herzegovina, Serbia, and Montenegro do
in Rwanda!”) The end. Cut. Goodbye. the game continues until all players, with not want to acknowledge. If many find the
In The Guardian Weekly, Aleksandar the exception of the winner, become hrkljuši. existence of Eastern and Western Mostar
Brezar, a Bosnian journalist, tried to explain Wikipedia also provides the meaning absurd, most former Yugoslavs think that
this scene by asking, “Might the unnamed JA SAM IZ ESDEKA that the word hrkljuš took on once it passed the carving up of the Serbo-Croatian
soldier be so insensible to his own desperate (I’M FROM THE IRS) from the sketch into lived language. If we language is quite logical. Croatian, Bosnian,
situation, the death and destruction NAGRADNA OTIMANJA are to believe it, hrkljuš means, among Serbian, and Montenegrin are today four
* that defined the early days of Bosnia’s (PRIZE ABDUCTION) other things, “a stubborn persistence on a officially recognized languages, and only a
The name is no independence, that the Rwandan genocide misguided path, and participation in a game handful of people pay heed to the linguists
coincidence, as nothing loomed larger in his mind?” “Ja sam iz esdeka i ima sve da mi napismeno whose rules are nebulous and changeable.” who claim that they are all one language with
with the Surrealists ever And if we paraphrase Brezar, we could doneseš” (“I’m from the IRS … Make sure At its end, Yugoslavia thus became an four linguistic standards.
is, since zijan is a Turkish
loanword meaning
ask: Were the Yugoslavs at the end of the you have everything in writing”), is how ordinary hrkljuš. There was nothing else left The post-Yugoslav nationalistic
“damage, defect, or loss”, 1980s so insensible to their own desperate Todor Zijan* threatens a TV journalist, while for it to do but hit its forehead and shout: politics hijacked language to the extent
while the character Todor situation, the death and destruction that the crew is taking his television set out of “Do mene! Do mene!” (“My bad!”). that, at a certain point, the Serbian films
or Kuku Todor is the
wretched hero of a famous
Serbian puppet show. 12 13 CRACK UP – CRACK DOWN
 GORAN VOJNOVIĆ

distributed in Croatia were subtitled: “Jesen That is why people could not care less
1992” (“The autumn of 1992”) and written about whether Ante Marković really knew
on the screen at the beginning of the film the answer to this question.
The Wounds, was also the subtitle “Jesen
1992” (“The autumn of 1992”).
As someone who has been left JEBENE NINĐE
without his mother tongue (the language (FUCKING NINJAS)
of my parents, which used to be called NINĐA REVIZORI
Serbo-Croatian, no longer officially exists), (NINJA AUDITORS)
I have no other choice but to occasionally
take a look at the clip in which Dr. Nele In the Ninđa revizori (Ninja Auditors) sketch,
Karajlić illustrates the obvious differences a group of ninjas, whose black headgear
between Serbian and Croatian with the reveals only their eyes, surround a student
sentence “Ja čitam” (“I read”). on a tram. They demand compliance with
law and order and are not impressed by
the student’s knowledge. When they find
ĐE BA ZAPELO? out that he is riding the bus without a ticket,
(WHERE’S THE HOLD-UP?) they beat him brutally. “Pravda je ponovno
NOVA VALUTA zadovoljena” (“Justice has been served
(NEW CURRENCY) once more”), one of the ninjas brags to
the audience during the beating.
In the sketch, “debazapelo?” (“where’s- We cannot know how viewers at the
the-hold-up?”) is the name of one of the time understood the sketch, but today’s
new currencies, and at the same time audience can certainly recognise in the ninjas
the unuttered question that accompanied Sarajevo’s priests of various confessions,
the end of the 1980s and the time of the who, with their hypocritical concern for law
economic crisis. This question also brought and order, are turning a once (passably)
forth the saviour in the shape of Ante multicultural, secular, and liberal country
Marković, a reformer who, according to into a conservative bumfuck.
one theory, just needed a bit more time By the way, the Bosnians like to refer to
and support from the people (who, at the various uniformed people, from Catholic nuns
fateful elections supported the nationalists, to women wearing burqas, as ninjas. Jebene
rather than Marković, despite the fact that ninđe (“Fucking ninjas”), they like to say. But
numerous pop stars promoted him) to it is unclear whether the credit for this should
save Yugoslavia. The unbelievable inflation, go to the Surrealists.
restrictions on electricity and water, and the
shortages of various products brought about
by the crisis would later merge into a popular SARAJEVSKI ZID
image of the former country, with which the (THE SARAJEVO WALL)
post-communist anti-communists tried to PODJELA SARAJEVA, SARAJEVSKI ZID
prove to the post-Yugoslav Yugophiles how (THE DIVISION OF SARAJEVO,
misconceived self-management socialism THE SARAJEVO WALL)
actually was. Their feeble-minded name-
calling would in time displace the last The mythical line between the East and the
remnants of the Yugoslavs’ lucid self-irony. West, which Orhan Pamuk claims is actually
“The average citizen of the Socialist a line between the past and present – and
Federal Republic of Yugoslavia earns a million which some people see in Istanbul, some in
dinars a month, but spends two,” explains Sarajevo, and some on the Kolpa – had never
Tito to Khrushchev and Reagan in a very old been so clearly posited as by the Surrealists.
joke. “How is that possible?” asks Reagan The Sarajevo Wall became the most infamous
in amazement. Tito replies indifferently: symbol of their vision, as evidenced by the
“We’re asking ourselves the same question.” fact that there still exists something called
Actually, the Yugoslavs asked “De Istočno Sarajevo (Eastern Sarajevo). But also,
← ba zapelo?” (“Where’s the hold-up?”) with and above all, because it was precisely the
Top Lista Nadrealista, 1984–1991. a similar indifference, since they saw it Yugoslav War that showed how very distant
Installation view at the 33rd Ljubljana only as a rhetorical question. In Yugoslavia, the Yugoslav world had been from the West,
Biennial of Graphic Arts, 2019. there was always a hold-up somewhere. and how big a wall there had been and

15 CRACK UP – CRACK DOWN

TOP LISTA NADREALISTA

still is on the border between Western and he is actually apolitical. Đurine kućne čarolije
Eastern Europe. (Đuro’s Magical House Tricks), a regular
And again, the end of the 1980s was sketch of Top Lista Nadrealista, was actually
a time of demolishing walls, a time when a respite from politics and it is no wonder
everyone laughed merrily at the surrealistic that čarolije (the tricks) were so popular
wall, but now, when walls are again being and that Đuro became such a big star. Only
erected and the Balkans are ruled by visible a brilliant comedian can make “A bogami
and invisible barriers, the Sarajevo Wall is i kečiga” (“and certainly starlet”) sound like
not in the least funny. This wall still stands the funniest phrase ever.
and the majority of former Yugoslavs have As opposed to most surrealistic
remained on its sunless side. sketches, Đurine kućne čarolije (Đuro’s
Magical House Tricks) is truly eternal.
Even though it was made at the time of
ŠTRAJK MOZGA Oliver Mlakar and his “jedna žličica Vegete”
(BRAIN ON STRIKE) (“one teaspoon of Vegeta”), to us today it
ŠTRAJK VLASTI seems like a parody of Jamie Oliver and
(THE GOVERNMENT ON STRIKE) the food-obsessed contemporary world.
Perhaps this is because, in the last forty
Although the tired, socialist Yugoslav years, while everything in the Yugoslav world
society offered an easy target and receptive has changed, only its cuisines have remained
audience that had under communism gotten untouched; or perhaps because, under all
used to laughing at even the bitterest truths, the absurdity of disintegrating socialism,
this was still not enough for first-rate satire. the Yugoslav reality was nevertheless not
If you do not believe me, think about the so different from today’s.
problems encountered by the comedians Perhaps all states and all social
that try in vain to parody Donald Trump. systems are in their essence utterly
Just like Yugoslavia, which often seemed absurd. Or perhaps today we just do not
like a first-rate parody of a state, Trump, have any surrealists who could disclose all
for the most part, seems a first-rate parody the absurdity of the world in which we live.
of an American President, a parody that only
the best comedians manage to exceed. Our
Perhaps.
Bon appétit. Dober tek. Prijatno. Bujrum. MARTIN KRPAN,
impersonators of Slavoj Žižek have a similar
problem: they still have not managed to TOP LISTA NADREALISTA,
create a funnier version than the man himself.
The fact that the Surrealists managed AND EQUALISING SATIRE
to parody the parody of a state so
successfully is the best proof of their genius.
And in parodying the parody, they nowhere VID SIMONITI
went so far as in the sketch in which the
government goes on strike and demands
its rights – “I mi bi da živimo ko rudari” I meant to take my leave without a word. But since you have delayed my
(“We would like to live like miners too”) reads departure yourself, do not now be upset that I’ve told you a few harsh ones.
one of the banners. The government as a You surely know what the late Jerry from the village of Golo used to say:
victim that we need to pity, sympathise with,
and help: how familiar and how portentous
‘Should I feed sweetmeats to the man I’m quarrelling with? Whichever spice
this sounds today. stings him most, that’s what I serve him!’ And now good-bye, and stay in
good health!
— Martin Krpan to the Emperor, in Fran Levstik’s Martin Krpan¹
A BOGAMI I KEČIGA
(AND CERTAINLY STARLET)
ĐURINE KUĆNE ČAROLIJE Fran Levstik, Yugoslav stamp, 1965. I used to have a Swedish dentist. Like all dentists, he relished the pleasure
(ĐURO’S MAGICAL HOUSE TRICKS) peculiar to their profession – to converse with a person whom they have just
rendered incapable of answering back. While thus engaged, this dentist also
Branko Đurić Đuro is doubtlessly the most
brilliant comedian among the Surrealists.
enjoyed the odd dig at my expense. He once told me of a journey through
Anything Đuro touched turned into a joke. 1.
Yugoslavia, which he took as a younger man. He did not spare me sarcastic
He did not need satire. As a comedian, Fran Levstik, Martin comments on the broken-down socialist trains, corrupt policemen, beautiful
Krpan z Vrha (Ljubljana:
Nova Založba, 1917),
16 p. 27, translation V. S. 17 CRACK UP – CRACK DOWN
 LOW BLOWS VID SIMONITI

women keen to marry a Westerner, etc. Of course I had to repay him somehow.
So after I was finally allowed to spit out that abominable mixture of mouthwash
and blood, I told him the following anecdote:

You describe my people rather well, I said, but, of course, we ex-Yugoslavs

have also travelled to Sweden, mostly as immigrants, rather than as tourists.
In fact, there was once a famous Yugoslav cigarette smuggler who emigrated
to Sweden, and when he returned, everybody asked him what that country
was like. ‘Wonderful,’ he said, ‘in Sweden, public transport works flawlessly;
people are kind and well-behaved; they have Abba; it is heaven on Earth.
But there is one problem.’
Tone Kralj, illustration for Martin Krpan z Vrha
(“Krpan argues with the court”), watercolour, I waited for my dentist to raise an eyebrow.
1954.

‘It is fucking boring.’

Achille Beltrame, Domenica del Corriere,
What good can come from such low blows? This is the question of satire. illustrating the assassination of Archduke
Franz Ferdinand of Austria and his wife
Historically, satire has been a form of humiliation, propelled by humour and Sophie in Sarajevo on 28 June 1914.
redeemed by self-righteousness. But in today’s political climate – where old Alina Bliumis, Nations Unleashed series: Barking Nations, 2018.
and new democracies alike are shaken by populist rebellions against consensus
politics, by charismatic leaders that stoke xenophobic hatred, by Twitter wars horses out of the stables by their tails; he chops down an ornamental tree to
unfolding between polarised factions – satire becomes an increasingly difficult make himself a club as a weapon. The Emperor himself is shown as kindly, but
subject. A few years ago, the coarseness of my conversation with the dentist left dithering and uxorious; the Minister of State, Gregor, is a boot-licking conniver.
me feeling that a pleasing equality had been re-established between us. In today’s In short, we have in Martin Krpan a classic example of dealing low blows
fraught atmosphere, one is more wary of causing offense, and more suspecting to an opponent; or, to put it more precisely, an example of what Thomas Hobbes,
of others’ motives for causing it too. Perhaps, then, if a case is to be made for in the 17th-century, described as the essence of humour: “The passion of laughter
satirical modes of speech today, this is more easily done at some historical remove is nothing else but a sudden glory arising from a sudden conception of some
from the present. eminency in ourselves, by comparison with the infirmity of others, or with our own
formerly.”² The sturdy Slovene suddenly, surprisingly triumphs over his German
Martin Krpan logo for sea salt, 2013. masters. Which is funny (to Slovenes).
*  *  * While the idea of Krpan as a national hero has been the chief
Though I don’t remember who the smuggler was in the anecdote I told the interpretation of the story, Krpan has had only mixed success in this regard since
dentist, the story might have had some factual basis: Ratko Đokić, the boss of the Slovenian independence. For some, Krpan’s glory has not gone far enough: having
Serbian cigarette mafia in Sweden, attained celebrity status in Belgrade, where defeated Brdavs, Krpan declines the honours that the Emperor would heap upon
he ran nightclubs and dated the pop singer Izolda Barudžija. But I begin this 2. 4.
him and returns to his simple village life. In the 1990s, this seemed like slim
analysis of satire with another smuggler from my own corner of ex-Yugoslavia Thomas Hobbes, See the analysis in pickings, and some scholars complained that Krpan’s humbleness only confirmed
The Elements of Law Alenka Bartulović,
– the Slovenian national hero, Martin Krpan. Natural and Politic, “‘We have an old debt
the Slovenes’ inferiority complex as citizens of a small, servile nation.³
Fran Levstik’s short story Martin Krpan from Vrh (1858) is a key part of the ed. F. Tönnies (London: with the Turk and it best For the liberal-cosmopolitan readers, on the other hand, Krpan gloats in his
Frank Cass & Co, be settled’: Ottoman
Slovene national literary canon. Krpan is an extraordinarily strong, good-natured 1969), p. 42. incursions through
sudden glory rather too much. This pertains especially to his victory over Brdavs.
man from the Slovene lands, who illegally trades in English salt. After a chance 3. the discursive optics of Though Levstik never explicitly identified the giant with the Ottoman Turks,
For an analysis of Krpan Slovenian historiography
encounter with the Emperor, Krpan is called to Vienna, where he fights off a interpretations, see Bojan and literature and their
the context of an enemy besieging Vienna establishes him as such. The problem
terrible giant, Brdavs, who is menacing the city. Published in the time of Bach’s Baskar, “Ambivalent applicability in the for the cosmopolitan reader, then, is that Krpan is an iteration of the “Christian
Dealings with an Imperial twenty-first century”,
absolutism in the Austrian Empire, Martin Krpan is a satire of the Habsburg rule, Past: The Habsburg Legacy in Božidar Jezernik,
frontiers” mythos. Slovenes’ attempts at building a national identity, especially in
disguised as a fairy tale. Levstik lampoons Viennese pretentions by juxtaposing and New Nationhood in ed., Imagining ‘the Turk’ literary works such as Martin Krpan, are here seen as predicated on the opposition
ex-Yugoslavia”, Working (Newcastle-upon-Tyne:
them with Krpan’s rural authenticity: the sophisticated dishes they serve Krpan at Papers der Kommission Cambridge Scholars
to an Orientalised image of the Turkish Other. And, from today’s (marginally)
Marlie Mul, Cigarette Hedgehog, 2016. court are no match for his enormous appetite; he causes chaos by pulling imperial für Sozialanthropologie Publishing, 2010), more tolerant standpoint, one might find such literature worryingly xenophobic.⁴
Österreichische Akademie pp. 111‒136.
der Wissenschaften. (2005),
18 pp. 1‒21, here 8‒10. 19 CRACK UP – CRACK DOWN
 LOW BLOWS VID SIMONITI

And so Krpan can hardly satisfy anyone today: he is not quite the nation- Who the hell, might the Emperor rightly ask here, is Jerry from Golo? When
building hero, and is even less of a committed multiculturalist. But neither of the Emperor offers Krpan the Princess’ hand in marriage, Krpan’s rejection is
these complaints quite get the right end of Martin Krpan, nor do they capture also quite strange (queer, even). He decidedly prefers his widowhood, and his
what is the most curious aspect of this story as a satire. What a satire can do, long-winded account of his first marriage implies that his wife’s death came as
certainly, is deliver a bout of “sudden glory”, i.e., humiliate the opponent and something of a relief. Of course, Krpan is the protagonist of the story, but might
elevate the protagonist. But it can also satirise the protagonist. we not also see in him the image of an eccentric village bachelor, rather than
The idea of Krpan as a national hero is so well-ingrained in the Slovene a paragon of nation-building virility?
literary psyche, that the suggestion that his character is itself the subject of Among the visual renditions, however, only Hinko Smrekar’s illustrations
satire may sound like an open heresy. However, it is striking what an uncouth, of 1917 capture Krpan’s parodic character. Unlike in Tone Kralj’s sumptuous
oddball rustic Levstik portrays him to be. No doubt Krpan is strong and watercolour illustrations or Miki Muster’s comic book, which both show
cunning, but he is also ill-mannered and quick to anger. His speeches in Vienna a youthful and strapping Krpan, Smrekar shows Krpan as a middle-aged man,
are full of obscure references to village life, which must strike his interlocutors wider at the waist than at the shoulders. When he fights off the toll collectors,
as bordering on insane ramblings. See the epigraph to this essay, for example. his heavy stomach hangs out in front of him. Wrecking the imperial armoury,
Here, having fallen out with the Empress, Krpan is about to leave the court in he stares at the Emperor in dim-witted frustration, as if expressing a big fat
a huff; in a lengthy tirade, he tells the Emperor he must ‘surely know’ what Jerry “oops”. Riding his trusty mare, his feet are almost dragging on the ground.
Hinko Smrekar, Self Portrait, 1926. ( Jernejko) from Golo, a small village near Ljubljana, had to say on such occasions. Miki Muster, Martin Krpan v stripu, 2018. While the giant Brdavs is in all visual renditions an unmistakable heir
of the early modern imago Turci – images of turbaned, cruel invaders that
proliferated in European visual culture of the early modern period – we might
recognise in Levstik’s and Smrekar’s Krpan an echo of the ‘lewd peasant’
stereotype, an echo of what we might call imago rustici. Consider Martin Krpan
next to, say, 16th-century satirical prints of peasant life, such as this 1527 German
woodcut of a peasant wedding: burly peasants consume inordinate amounts of
food, while one of them (at the bottom-right corner of the table) vomits and
another (at the bottom-left) defecates. Such images deriding peasants as lewd,
voracious, and sexually perverse were common from the early modern era well
into the 19th-century; and, as Umberto Eco notes in his study On Ugliness,
such prints and literature tended to laugh at the peasants, rather than with
them.⁵ Krpan, of course, possesses many redeeming features, but doesn’t he also
share these peasants’ rude appetites? At court he consumes, as Levstik puts it,
“two legs of pork, two quarters of a ram, three capons, and, since he would not
eat the middle, the crust of four white loaves of bread, smeared with eggs and
butter.”⁶ Does he not share their cunning, coarseness, and even perhaps their
strange sexual proclivities? In spite of any admiration Krpan may win, these
elements also call forth an almost contemptuous smile.
Erhard um Schön, Peasant Wedding, If we accept that the protagonist’s character in Martin Krpan is also
woodcut, 1527. itself the target of satire, this suggests a rather surprising literary structure, one
that is at odds with traditional views of the genre. Throughout its long history,
satire has encompassed many varieties and subcategories – including the Roman
genres practised by Horace and Juvenal, or the grotesque Renaissance satire of
Rabelais – but the modern European conception of satire can perhaps be traced
5. 8.
Umberto Eco, On Ugliness Cited in Dustin Griffin,
to the 17th and 18th centuries, to the work of such satirists as Jonathan Swift,
(London: MacLehose “Dryden and Restoration John Dryden, or Voltaire.⁷ These authors share the view that satire is partial to
Press, 2011), p. 137. Satire”, in Ruben Quintero,
6. ed., A Companion to Satire
a given social, religious, or moral position; in John Dryden’s formulation, the
Levstik, Martin Krpan, (London: Blackwell, 2007), satirist is obliged “to give his Reader some one Precept of Moral Virtue; and
p. 13, translation V. S. p. 177.
Hinko Smrekar, illustration for Martin Krpan z Vrha (“Krpan beats Hinko Smrekar, illustration for Martin Krpan z Vrha (“Krpan wrecks 7.
to caution him against some one particular Vice or Folly.”⁸ In this same vein,
the toll officers”), ink drawing, 1917. the armoury”), ink drawing, 1917. Dustin Griffin, Satire: Martin Krpan has often been understood as a satirical attack on (the vices and
A Critical Introduction
(Lexington: University
20 Press of Kentucky, 1994). 21 CRACK UP – CRACK DOWN
 LOW BLOWS VID SIMONITI

follies of ) the Habsburg multinational state. However, insofar as we can also

see the character of Krpan himself derided, this rather complicates matters.
Here, not only Levstik’s counter-position (Austrian rule) but also his own position
(Slovene authenticity) receives satirical treatment. In Martin Krpan, there is a
strange equality between the three equally-made-fun-of opponents: the bungling
Emperor, the bloodthirsty Turk, and the Slovene country bumpkin.

Tala Madani, Dirty Protest, 2015.

The cast of Top Lista Nadrealista, 1984–1991.

and mostly politically harmless sketches, interspersed with musical interludes.

However, the final two seasons of the show (1989 and 1991) presented openly
political material that was darkly prophetic of the calamity about to happen.
One sketch imagined a Sarajevo divided between warring garbage collectors;
another showed a divorced couple at war in a divided apartment.
As the war broke out and Sarajevo came under siege in 1992, production
Kikeriki (Vienna, 20 October 1918). A cartoon Quentin Massys, Ill-Matched Lovers, oil on panel, ca. 1520–1525. ceased and several of the makers of Top Lista Nadrealista left the city (Branko
in the Austrian newspaper depicting the Đurić, for example, escaped to Ljubljana, where he launched a renaissance in
children of Lady Austria leaving her behind.
Only the German child stays with her.
I shall leave aside the question as to what extent Levstik himself consciously Slovenian comedy). Those who stayed behind assembled a new group, continued
intended to satirise the character of Krpan; the satirical potential is made Illustration from the exhibition Yugoslavia: with the radio show, and even produced a few television episodes. With both
palpable enough by Smrekar’s illustrations. The key question is whether a model From Beginning to End, Museum of Karajlić and Đurić gone, these wartime episodes were a spin-off of the original
the History of Yugoslavia, 2012–2013.
of satire revealed – an equalising satire, which attempts to humiliate all the series, and they are certainly not as well-known today as the sketches of 1989
political positions on the table – can play a productive role at the intersection and 1991, but they do stand as a remarkable document of satire in wartime.
of art and politics today. Before I attempt a more theoretical unpacking of this The portrayal of different ethnicities in wartime Top Lista Nadrealista
notion, let me introduce another instance of such equalising satire. is of special interest here: the tenor of the entire show is anti-war, and yet, the
sketches often base their comedy on satirical ethnic stereotypes.¹⁰ To a harsh
critic this might appear to be a paradoxical or even hypocritical position. After
*  *  * 10. 11.
all, ethnic jokes – as Simon Critchley has noted in his book On Humor – always
9.
The wartime episodes of the comedy television show Top Lista Nadrealista These stereotypes Simon Critchley,
express contempt of the ethnically Other.¹¹ Eliciting Hobbesian “sudden glory”,
For some sources in (1993), filmed during the siege of Sarajevo, must surely be a case of satirical are often based on On Humour (London: such jokes seem to reinforce hierarchies of ethnic value, of the sort necessary
English, see: William “nesting Orientalisms”, Routledge, 2002), pp. 68‒76.
Hunt, Ferida Duraković,
humour produced under the most extreme circumstances in recent history. whereby each ethnicity 12.
to undertake nationalist wars. But the wartime Top Lista Nadrealista pushes
Zvonimir Radeljković, Top Lista Nadrealista (The Surrealists’ Top Chart) originally grew out of the is differentiated from Top Lista Nadrealista 4. us towards a more complex understanding of such humour.
“Bosnia Today: Despair, the others in terms of Co-production of
Hope, and History”,
New Primitivism music movement in Sarajevo in the late 1980s, and soon how “Oriental” or “Balkan” Radio-Televizija Bosne i
In one sketch, a Roma (Gypsy) man is digging a tunnel into the ground
Dissent 60.3 (2013), came to enjoy a Yugoslavia-wide popularity.⁹ The show’s creators – the most it is. Milica Bakić-Hayden, Hercegovine i Top Lista to escape the war. He declares that he has had “enough of democracy”.¹² His wife
pp. 23‒26; Borislava “Nesting Orientalisms: Nadrealista, Sarajevo,
Vučković, “Dr. Nele
recognizable onscreen presences were Nele Karajlić, Branko Đurić, and Zenit The case of former 1993‒1994. Viewed at
(a male actor in drag) and his children (who seem to be genuine Roma children
Karajlić in the Framework Đozić – initially modelled themselves on Monty Python, producing absurdist, Yugoslavia”, Slavic Review https://www.youtube.com/ co-opted into the sketch) bemoan the man’s attempt to leave, but the punchline
of the ‘New Primitives’”, 54.4 (1995), pp. 917‒931. watch?v=XMNMb8t9L
Muzikologija 23 (2017), sk&t=564s. Accessed
pp. 99‒115. 22 19 December 2018. 23 CRACK UP – CRACK DOWN
LOW BLOWS VID SIMONITI

comes when the man tells us he is planning to dig the tunnel through the Earth’s To say that these sketches – like most Balkan jokes – employ crude ethnic
core. In the ensuing scenes he pops up in various parts of the warzone, where he stereotypes would be entirely correct. It would also be right to say that the
is threatened by everybody from the Russians to UN troops, before digging his sketches, produced in the Bosnian-controlled territory, tended to be told from
way back home. Another sketch stages a report by an “enemy” TV station from the perspective of Muslim Bosnians. But these wartime sketches are also
Serbia. The Serbian forces have caught two Czech tourists, who they suspect of self-deprecating to the point of fatalism: showing, for example, a Bosnian
being Mujahedin fighters aiding the Muslim Bosnians. Much of the humour commander who accidentally gives away the co-ordinates of his headquarters
derives from a silly confusion between the words “tourist” and “terrorist”, and and ends up getting bombed as a result.¹³ By employing stereotypes, the
other misunderstandings between the two Slavic languages. Sarajevo Surrealists keep the animosities of war in view, and yet the effect is
not one of jingoist self-aggrandisement. What comes across instead is the sense
that all these stock characters from the old, familiar Balkan jokes are trapped
in the horror and absurdity of war together.
Despite the century-and-a-half time lapse between them, what Top Lista
Nadrealista and Martin Krpan share is the “equalising” element in satire. In both
cases, mutually opposing political agents are brought into view, and are shown to
be humorously, but equally, deficient. Hobbes’ idea of humour as “sudden glory”
does not quite work here, because in this case a sudden infirmity, or sudden
humiliation, applies to all involved. The ideals have tumbled and all that remains
to be seen is the grotesque struggle in which human bodies are now entangled.

*  *  *
‘NAƱ OR ‘NƏƱ Satire may seem cynical. The free reign of oppressive stereotypes in satire
“Now Jump!” were the last words a Dutch appears unconscionable and cruel at a time of crisis. If we accept the “equalising”
tourist heard as she leaped off a bridge
in Cabezon de la Sal in Northern Spain in
element to satire, then one might also be disappointed that satire does not take
2015. From those words she had, all too sides more clearly, and instead reduces all positions – the “good” and the “bad” –
quickly, deduced that her bungee rope was to the same mud-slinging level. To return to my micro-political situation in
secured and ready to spring her back from the dentist’s office, would it not have been better to rise above petty divisions,
her downward flight. It was not. The bungee
jump instructor was arrested and before a
to be the better man, to say a word that would inspire tolerance or kindness?
trial he explained that he had not said “Now Of course, I would like to say “no” here. But it is not theoretically straightforward
Jump!” but rather “No Jump!”, meaning that to show why satire is not cynical, how its subversion of ideals can be politically
his thick Cantabrian accent when speaking productive.
the English letter “o” had led to the fatal
misunderstanding. Despite only pleading
To resist the conflation of satire with cynicism, we might begin with
guilty to a poor command of English, he was a thought by Slavoj Žižek (admittedly written in a different context) in an essay
convicted of manslaughter and sentenced on the European refugee crisis: “Communitarianism is not enough: a recognition
Stills from Top Lista Nadrealista at the 33rd Ljubljana Biennial of Graphic Arts, 2019. to four years in prison. that we are all, each in our own way, strange lunatics provides the only hope for
Lawrence Abu Hamdan, Disputed Utterances
a tolerable co-existence of different ways of life.”¹⁴ Equalising satire may offer
The set-up in these sketches relies on the stock characters from the “Balkan (dioramas), 2019. a step towards such a realisation. Consider, again, the Czech tourists sketch in
jokes”, a near-endless catalogue of ethnic witticisms familiar to all denizens of Top Lista Nadrealista. The Czechs keep repeating they are Czechs, the Serbian
the former Yugoslavia. The Roma are shown as a happy-go-lucky group. They journalist spouts patriotic platitudes, and the entire segment is framed by
all burst into song in the end; the children are shown with stereotypical Roma a (presumably Bosnian) text crawler suggesting it is “footage taken from the
moustaches; the husband is briefly shown stealing a car battery. The Serbian aggressor’s television.” But the more the seriousness of national divisions is
reporter has bushy facial hair associated with Serbian Orthodoxy; the Czech emphasised by all concerned, the more absurd they appear, especially given
tourists have the childlike manners and unfashionable clothes which they always 13. 14.
the obviously ill-fitting fake beard of the “Serbian” journalist and the farcically
had in the Yugoslav imaginary. Even today, the word “Czech” remains a Slovenian Ibid. Slavoj Žižek, “Terrorists hysterical “Czechs”. We would misunderstand the sketch if we saw it as simply
with a Human Face”,
colloquialism for “outmoded”, stemming from the time when Czechoslovakia in Jela Krečič, ed., The
mocking different peoples; it is instead the idea of belonging to any national
had less access to Western fashions than Yugoslavia. Final Countdown: Europe, category that begins to look like lunacy.
Refugees and the Left
(Ljubljana: IRWIN, 2017),
24 pp. 187‒201, here 199. 25 CRACK UP – CRACK DOWN
Endre Tot, Deset vprašanj (Ten questions),
2019. Installation view at the 33rd Ljubljana
Biennial of Graphic Arts, 2019.
 LOW BLOWS VID SIMONITI

We may further illuminate the mechanism at work here by borrowing from immigrant. If we were to suggest simply that Borat “subverts” xenophobia
Alenka Zupančič’s theory of comedy. Zupančič distinguishes between “false” by over-affirmation, we would not be telling the full story. The satirist leaves
comedy – which merely tarnishes some ideal type with vulgarity – and the stereotypes of the old order lying around, like so many weapons for its
“true” comedy – which subverts the ideal type itself. In conservative comedies audiences to use.
of baronage, for example, aristocrats are shown to chase after women, fart, and Such trouble may be inherent to satire. But what Top Lista Nadrealista
snore: they are shown as “merely human”, but the aristocratic order itself is not and Martin Krpan teach us is that the best satirical positions do not temper their
questioned. “True” comedies, by contrast, show an aristocrat as silly in the very use of oppressive categories with a final “just kidding.” Rather, they are those that
belief that he is an aristocrat; here Zupančič builds on Jacques Lacan’s remark allow us to see the violence of such categories most clearly. In wartime Top Lista
that “a lunatic is a king who believes that he really is a king.”¹⁵ Perhaps this is Still from South Park, season 20, 2016. Nadrealista, of course, the threat of violence is always literally present, filmed as
the politically productive moment in equalising satire too; in various sketches it was during the siege of Sarajevo. But even Martin Krpan, while often presented
of Top Lista Nadrealista, (ethnic) ideals are dismantled precisely through as a children’s story, has violence at its core: Brdavs murders the Emperor’s son,
such excessive affirmation.¹⁶ The best-known example of this is the pre-war and Krpan decapitates Brdavs. Of the various illustrators, Smrekar again stands
“languages” sketch, which mocks the nationalist attempts to recognise Croatian, out for capturing this violent aspect. Towering over the unlucky prince, Smrekar’s
Bosnian, and Serbian as separate languages, when in reality these are mutually Brdavs is a gaunt, skeletal figure, his mouth grimacing in a deathly grin. Krpan’s
intelligible. What makes the sketch so funny is that all the characters play confrontation with the toll collectors – a colourful dance in Tone Kralj’s beautiful
along faithfully with the ideal, and are completely uncomprehending of each illustration – is the work of a scowling, maddened hulk in Smrekar’s rendition.
other, until another person’s language (Bosnian) is translated into their own While in the illustrations of Tone Kralj and Miki Muster, the two combatants
Honza Zamojski, Mindless Anger, 2019. (Serbian). What is said, of course, sounds exactly the same. By undermining appear to be playfighting in a jocular historical re-enactment. Smrekar’s warring
multiple positions, equalising satire subverts some overarching “bad” ideal giants promise destruction. In other words, while equalising satire indeed shows
– say, nationalism, as such. that we are all lunatics, its position need not be the false hope that we can all just
Yet this only partially addresses the trouble with satire. Where satire get along, or the cynical assertion that no one position is better than another.
differs from the “subversive” model of political art (postulated by Zupančič’s
view of comedy, but of course also espoused in poststructuralist aesthetics more
broadly), is that satire does not in fact replace one set of ideals (say, nationalism)
with another (say, cosmopolitanism). Indeed, while satire may mock any number
of ideals, it leaves them in place insofar as it fully utilises their oppressive aspects;
the taxonomies, the stereotypes, the “otherings” that they produce. For example,
while Martin Krpan and Top Lista Nadrealista both expose the absurdity of their
respective political and symbolic orders, they also never abjure the stereotypes,
Orientalisms and divisions which were enshrined in those very orders. In
the illustrations for Martin Krpan, Turks are still murderous and have long
moustaches; in wartime Top Lista Nadrealista, Serbs are still bloodthirsty and
have bushy eyebrows.
This troublesome aspect of satire may be perhaps more fully appreciated
if we consider examples closer to us in time: the excessive, neo-Rabelaisian
Anglophone satires of the 2000s, such as those of Sacha Baron Cohen (Borat,
15. 16.
2006; Bruno, 2009), or of Trey Parker and Matt Stone (South Park, since 1997;
Alenka Zupančič, Comparable strategies Team America, 2004). These share something of the equalising structure
The Odd One In: On may be detected in
Comedy (Cambridge, MA: Soviet “stiob” humour as
I described: they not only mock ideals that cosmopolitan-liberal audiences
The MIT Press, 2008), well, as well as in what perceive as “bad” (various domestic and imperialist forms of American
pp. 30‒37. Slavoj Žižek described
as over-identification in
chauvinism), but also those they perceive as “good” (environmentalism, sexual Hinko Smrekar, illustration of Brdavs for Still from Team America: World Police, 2004.
the Slovene punk band tolerance, multiculturalism). In the process, such satires mercilessly unleash all Martin Krpan z Vrha (“But the giant was
Laibach. See e.g. Dominic not of a merciful heart, but murdered every
Boyer and Alexei Yurchak,
kinds of oppressive categories: stereotypes of Islamic terrorists, Third World opponent that he would beat in combat”),
To elaborate on the value of such satirical ruthlessness for political discourse,
“American Stiob: Or, What immigrants, homosexuals, rednecks, and so forth. For example, while Sacha ink drawing, 1917. we might inscribe satire within a realist tradition of political philosophy, the
Late-Socialist Aesthetics
of Parody Reveal About
Baron Cohen’s Borat might make conservative American ideals its main target, tradition of Machiavelli, Hobbes, Carl Schmitt, or more recently, of Chantal
Contemporary Political it also punches down, and punches hard, at the figure of the Third World Mouffe’s approach to politics as an agonistic struggle between adversaries.
Culture in the West”,
Cultural Anthropology 25.2
(2010), pp. 179‒221. 28 29 CRACK UP – CRACK DOWN
 LOW BLOWS VID SIMONITI

Borrowing a term from Mouffe, we might say that satire reveals politics as of ideals. The absurd realism of satire, we might say, is opposed to that divinely
a form of “agonistic pluralism”.¹⁷ For Mouffe, “the political” consists in a cruel, uncompromising, dialectical battle in which one form of Being overcomes
confrontation between interests that cannot be aligned. The task of politics, then, another – be it democracy wiping out authoritarianism, world communism
is not to reach absolute agreement about our ideals, but to transform enemies triumphing over capitalism, or one ethnic ideal asserting itself over all others.
into adversaries; that is, to transform them into opponents, whose aim is struggle, Yes, each real political action ultimately requires ideals, and pure Realpolitik is
but not mutual elimination. This may be just what the equalising, anti-idealist a cynical enterprise. But when a power struggle has already begun, when it has
impulse in satire can reveal. In Smrekar’s illustration of Martin Krpan, there is no already become bloodshed, a moratorium on ideals may be the best thing that
Slovene People pitted against Imperial Authority; instead, a peasant bickers with an artistic protest can offer.
a pretentious court. In wartime Top Lista Nadrealista, mythical struggles between And what of such satire today? The political merits of any artistic
Christianity and Islam are deflated, even if the reality of those ethnic-religious strategy must be judged from the specifics of its historical situation. A general
confrontations is acknowledged. Stripped of its ideological pretensions, politics analysis of satire cannot issue a blanket “pro” or “contra” for an entire genre.
Tone Kralj, illustration for Martin Krpan z Vrha in equalising satire becomes a lowly, tragicomic, unexceptional confrontation But it is hard to imagine, in 2019, a satire like Team America or Borat enjoying
(“Krpan fights the toll collectors”), between earthly creatures.¹⁸ the kind of success that these films had in the mid-2000s. To an extent this is
watercolour, 1954.
understandable. As hard-won ideals of tolerance become threatened by populism
and xenophobia, we may rightly feel more protective of them. Simultaneously,
low-attention-span media like Twitter thrive on sanctimony and outrage, and so
we may feel it is safer to stay on-message. Either way, the temptation today is to
draw clear battle lines and hold tightly to the views we think are right. However,
what an analysis of examples like Martin Krpan and Top Lista Nadrealista offers
Sacha Baron Cohen as Borat, 2006. is the thought that even satire, which attacks “our own” ideals, need not result
in cynicism, but may rather keep the spirit of criticism alive. It is not the job
of satire to set our moral compass, or to usher in a better world. Satire can only
invite bitter laughter at the realisation that blind faith in abstract ideals exacts
a price in all-too-real violence. In a world increasingly brutal and polarised,
this is a reminder we would do well to heed.

BAY GANYO
Bay Ganyo is a fictional anti-hero created problems of post-liberation Bulgaria in
in the 19th-century by the writer Aleko the late 19th-century. Akin to Fran Levstik’s
Konstantinov (1863–1897) as a parody Martin Krpan in Slovenia, the Czech Švejk,
of an uncouth, rural Bulgarian. Ganyo Tartarin of Tarascon in France, and Ostap
serves as the simple but opportunistic Bender in Russia, the character has become
protagonist in a series of satirical an archetype of the lower-middle class.
feuilletons, including To Chicago and Back Konstantinov’s character of Bay Ganyo
(1894), which chronicles Konstantinov’s was based on a real person – Ganyo Somov,
visit to the World’s Columbian Exposition a rose merchant from the village of Enina
in 1893, and Bay Ganyo goes around near Kazanlak; the honorific Bay is a
17. 18. Europe (1895), in which Ganyo is the Bulgarian term intended to signify an older
Woody De Othello, Warm Welcome, 2019.
Chantal Mouffe, We might suggest that Other comically set against other Others or more influential person. In the ensuing
The Democratic Paradox this form of satire reveals
(London: Verso, 2005), what Emily Apter has
throughout the Austro-Hungarian century-and-a-half of nascent nationalism,
especially pp. 101‒105, analysed as “unexceptional”
Satirical “low blows” offer no quick ideological solutions, and we would be wrong and German empires, Switzerland, Bay Ganyo has been instrumentalised
116‒118. politics: behind-the-scenes to ignore the way satire can easily flip into symbolic violence. But if we can and Russia, where he travels selling by various, often opposing, parties, from
wheeling and dealing, right-wing extremists to progressives,
opportunistic politicking,
understand satire’s caustic humour as linked to a realist conception of politics, rose oil. Later issues depict Ganyo no
longer as an entrepreneurial salesman, modernisers to traditionalists.
“Machiavellianism in then it becomes easier to see how satire can rise above cynicism and be politically but a politician, satirising the political Martina Vacheva, Uncle Greedy, 2018.
its modern historical
mutations”, which
productive. Staging a confrontation between mere adversaries, satire attempts to
traditional political theory stay a worse violence: a struggle to the death, which is predicated on the politics
has tended to ignore. Emily
Apter, Unexceptional Politics
(London: Verso, 2018), p. 1. 30 31 CRACK UP – CRACK DOWN
 NO MORE
FUCHS LEFT
TO GIVE

ARTHUR FOURNIER & RAPHAEL KOENIG

Eduard Fuchs (1870–1940) was one of socio-historical analyses that offered

the most versatile and prolific figures politically progressive takes on sensitive,
of the German left at the turn of the century. hotly debated topics of the day. Such albums
His dual roles as a collector and critically provided occasions for Fuchs to critically
engaged historian of lithographs helped deconstruct the imagery of nationalism,
contemporaries including Walter Benjamin militarism, gender roles, and popular
(see his essay “Eduard Fuchs, Collector representations of sexuality.
and Historian”, 1937) grasp the role of One of his most compelling works
mechanically-reproduced satirical images in in that regard is his three-volume study
the production of political discourses. Fuchs Women Domination (Weiberherrschaft).
was keenly aware of the double-edged nature For Fuchs, the pervasive iconography
of such images, which can either talk back of female dominance – ranging from
to power or reinforce existing mechanisms mythological depictions to dominatrix
of oppression. fantasies – represents a kind of symbolic
Fuchs joined the staff of the illustrated compensation for the harassment and
satirical fortnightly newspaper The South brutalities suffered by women in patriarchal
German Coachman (Der Süddeutsche societies. Such images of powerful women,
Postillon) as editor-in-chief in 1892. This Fuchs imagined, might also one day pave
experience at the helm of a left-leaning the way for fairer, more equal gender
journal piqued his interest in the popular relations.
art of lithographic caricature, which he
collected voraciously.
Arthur Fournier & Raphael Koenig, From 1902 onwards, he published his
No More Fuchs Left to Give, 2019. findings in abundantly illustrated volumes
Installation view at the 33rd Ljubljana featuring reproductions of prints from his
Martina Vacheva, The Bikini Carwash
Biennial of Graphic Arts, 2019. private collection, accompanied by detailed
Company, 2018. From the Print Portfolio,
The 33rd Ljubljana Biennial of Graphic Arts,
2019. 33 CRACK UP – CRACK DOWN
NO MORE FUCHS LEFT TO GIVE ARTHUR FOURNIER & RAPHAEL KOENIG

←
Max Engert, Fuchs’ Return (Fuchsen’s
Rückkehr). Colour lithograph for The South
German Carriage Driver: Political-Satirical
Worker’s Newspaper (Süddeutscher
Postillon: Politisch-Satirisches Arbeiterblatt),
a biweekly journal edited by Eduard Fuchs
and published by M. Ernst (Munich, 1899).
Engert’s image shows Eduard Fuchs astride
a flying beer stein, belching with zig-zag
lines of anarchic energy upon his release
from prison in June of 1899, revelling in the
enjoyment of beer, freedom, and fresh air.
Fuchs had been imprisoned for lèse-majesté;
undeterred, he sharpens his quill to pen
more anti-government materials. The prison
guard below ominously waves and shouts,
“We’ll see each other again!” (“Es giebt ein
Wiedersehen!”).

S.M. Opus 731, Colour lithograph for The South German Carriage Driver: Political-Satirical
Worker’s Newspaper. The image shows a corpulent government censor in a room cluttered
with seized materials. As a police officer arrives with additional journals, the censor remarks:
“I’ve already confiscated so much, that soon, there won’t be anything left to confiscate.”
(“Ich habe nun so viel konfisziert, das mir zu konfiszieren bald nichts mehr übrig bleibt.”).
The picture above the censor’s desk provides the scene with a particularly grim background,
showing Eduard Fuchs and another publisher executed by hanging as a symbolic, yet
unambiguous reminder of the brutality of governmental repression.

34 35 CRACK UP – CRACK DOWN

 NO MORE FUCHS LEFT TO GIVE ARTHUR FOURNIER & RAPHAEL KOENIG

Albert Fiebiger, Untitled, colour lithograph

for The South German Carriage Driver:
Political-Satirical Worker’s Newspaper.
Fiebiger’s image depicts the spirit of the
era as a skeletal clown, coupled with
the foreboding verse “Always jolly, you great
Time, Jolly in your dazzling Fool’s garments!
Even when dancing on a Volcano – Always
jolly! Because why should you care?” (“Immer
Lustig, du tolle Zeit, Lustig im schillernden
Narrenkleid! Tanzest du auch auf einem
Michael Myers, Impeach Nixon, linocut Vulkan – Immer lustig! Was sieht’s dich an?”).
bumpersticker in black and orange on The deep-seated pessimism of this allegory
33.6 × 13.4 cm yellow paper, i.e., second of the zeitgeist stands in sharp contrast with
state (San Francisco: Hermes Free Press, the usual iconography of the Postillon, which
ca. 1972). The rebus-style word puzzle spells often expressed more confidence in the
out “IM + (peach) N + (“ick” portrait of the journal’s socially progressive agenda.
President gagging) + (sun),” urging members
of the U.S. Senate to dipose of the disgraced
leader. Under the moniker Zephyus Image,
Myers and his collaborator Holbrook Teter
used printmaking as a playful but potent form
of political street theatre.

Henry Wessells, Donald Trump The Magazine of Poetry, offset lithographic illustrated artist’s
book (Upper Montclair, New Jersey: Temporary Culture, 2016.) Front cover photograph
of burning marshmallow by Henry Wessells, an American poet, publisher and bookseller
who responded to the election of Donald Trump with a satirical blast of words and
images. Wessells acknowledged the chilling prescience of Sladek & Zoline’s Ronald Reagan
The Magazine of Poetry, No. 1 (London, 1968), by including reproductions of its covers
in his own publication, thus purposefully reconnecting with the irreverent inventiveness of
1960s political graphic arts.

36 37 CRACK UP – CRACK DOWN

 NO MORE FUCHS LEFT TO GIVE ARTHUR FOURNIER & RAPHAEL KOENIG
→
Auguste Roedel (1859–1900), The Mad Cow,
colour lithograph (Paris, 1897). Reproduced
in E. Fuchs, Weiberherrschaft, Vol. 2, No. 424,
under the title “The Satisfied Torera”.
Originally published as a cover of the French
satirical illustrated magazine The Mad Cow
(La Vache enragée) as an advertisement
for the Vachalcade or “Promenade of the
Mad Cow”, a carnival procession of the
Montmartre district that functioned as a
rallying point for artists and writers of the
Paris “bohème” in the 1880s and 1890s.
In the Weiberherrschaft, Fuchs puts the
motive in parallel with the biblical episode
of Judith beheading Holofernes.

Joseph Kuhn-Régnier, Aristotle and Phyllis, lithograph (Paris, 1910). Reproduced in E. Fuchs,
Weiberherrschaft, Vol. 1, No. 35. The apocryphal story of Aristotle and Phyllis is a cautionary
tale of the limits of rationalism: as Aristotle was advising Alexander the Great to leave his
lover Phyllis, the latter took revenge on Aristotle by seducing him and convincing him to
engage in a BDSM encounter avant la lettre. She then proceeded to ride him like a horse,
arranging for Alexander to witness the scene, thus putting his teacher and one of the founding
fathers of Western philosophy in an incongruous and rather undignified position. As an
illustrator of pedagogical works on Greek and Roman antiquity and a successful caricaturist,
Joseph Kuhn-Régnier (1873–1940) was uniquely qualified to offer this lively, Belle Époque
take on an ancient iconographic trope.

←
Master B.R., Aristotle and Campaspe, Jean-Adolphe Lafosse, Truncated Claws,
etching (Netherlands, late 15th-century). lithograph (Paris, 1850). Reproduced in
Reproduced in E. Fuchs, Weiberherrschaft, E. Fuchs, Weiberherrschaft, Vol. 2, No. 361.
Vol. 2, No. 595. “Campaspe” is sometimes Partly derived from an 1836 painting by
used as an alternative name for Phyllis. In Camille Roqueplan, this motif is based on
the Weiberherrschaft, Fuchs offers a large Aesop’s cautionary tale “The Lion in Love”
selection of graphic interpretations of the (Fable 140), later adapted by Jean de La
story of Aristotle and Phyllis, ranging from Fontaine. Lafosse innovates by emphasising
12th-century Romanesque stone carvings the underlying erotic and psychological
to modern times. He also dwells on the tensions of the scene: the lion’s fiancée’s
impressive international extension of its bare breasts seem to invite a predatory male
mechanisms of diffusion, from a 2nd-century gaze, which is simultaneously repelled and
Sanskrit original to medieval French and symbolically castrated by a large pair of
German ballads through Persian, Arabic, scissors at the centre of the composition.
Hebrew, and Latin translations. Master It is fair to assume that, when publishing the
B.R.’s version is particularly remarkable second volume of the Weiberherrschaft in
for Aristotle’s ambiguous gaze, directed 1913, Fuchs’ choice of displaying Lafosse’s
straight at the viewer, either emphasising lithograph in a prominent position was
the philosopher’s confusion of being caught informed by Freud’s early writings on the
in the act or attempting to make the viewer castration complex (1908) and on scopophilia
into a complicit voyeur. or Schautrieb (1905).

38 39 CRACK UP – CRACK DOWN

NO MORE FUCHS LEFT TO GIVE

SHY
RADICALS

THE ANTISYSTEMIC POLITICS

OF THE MILITANT INTROVERT
HAMJA AHSAN

The quieter you become,

the more you are able to hear.
—Lao Tzu
Jean Veber, Marianne’s Footstep, colour lithograph, ed. Edmond Sagot (Paris, 1905).
Reproduced in E. Fuchs, Weiberherrschaft, Vol. 1, No. 175. Jean Veber (1864–1928) was Drawing together communiqués, covert by Pan-Shyist ideology, protecting the rights
a leading caricaturist of the late 19th-century, and a regular contributor to the illustrated interviews, and the oral and underground of the oppressed, quiet, and shy people.
newspaper Le Rire (Laughter). Fuchs included his vivid depiction of Marianne (the allegorical histories of introvert struggles, Hamja Shy Radicals are the Black Panther
impersonation of the French Republic) on the basis of its artistic merits and thematic Ahsan’s Shy Radicals provides a detailed Party of the introvert class, and their anti-
relevance, linking state power with a strong, even violent female body, but was far from documentation of the political demands of systemic manifesto is a quiet and thoughtful
endorsing its political message. Fuchs and Veber stood at opposite ends of the political shy people. polemic, a satire that uses anti-colonial
spectrum, as Veber’s arch-conservative portrayal of an unhinged, red-faced Marianne was Radicalised against the imperial theory to build a critique of dominant culture
meant to constitute a vitriolic critique of the “plebeian” Republic’s perceived assault on domination of globalised PR projectionism, and the rising tide of Islamophobia.
Catholic values in the context of the hotly debated 1905 law that abolished all ties between extrovert poise, and loudness, the Shy
the French state and religious institutions. Radicals and their guerrilla wing – the
Shy Underground – are a vanguard
movement intent on trans-rupting the
consensus extrovert-supremacist politics
and assertiveness culture of the 21st-
century. The movement aims to establish
an independent homeland – Aspergistan,
Seashell, the national anthem of the a utopian state for introverted people, run
Shy People’s Republic of Aspergistan. according to Shyria Law and underpinned

40 41 CRACK UP – CRACK DOWN

 SHY RADICALS HAMJA AHSAN

THE ASPERGISTAN
REFERENDUM, 2019

On the occasion of the 33rd Biennial of

Graphic Arts, a referendum on secession
asks the exhibition venues in Ljubljana to
join the breakaway Aspergistan Federation:
the national homeland of Shy, Introvert, and
Autistic spectrum peoples as constituted
in the book Shy Radicals. From ballot boxes
to a national anthem and social media
hashtags, the Aspergistan Referendum
continues Ahsan’s interest in what he
calls a “global Introfada struggle against
Extrovert-supremacy.” The vibrant civil
society of post-socialist, post-Yugoslav
Slovenia offers a particularly apt context
for an investigation of how introspection,
identity, and affect collide.

Join the conversation and follow

the hashtags #VoteAspergistan.

Join the struggle and post the

#ShyPower salute in various locations.

→
Hamja Ahsan, Shy Radicals: The Antisystemic
Politics of the Militant Introvert, 2017. Design
and illustrations by Rose Nordin.

42 43 CRACK UP – CRACK DOWN

 SHY RADICALS

On behalf of the Governing Authority of

the Aspergistan Federation, it’s a pleasure to
announce the results of the 2019 Aspergistan
Referendum, Ljubljana. Thanks to all those
who voted. There was an excellent turnout
of 575 active voters.

The Aspergistan Referendum results

were announced on 27 September 2019
at 3:00 PM. The Amendment was passed
by a majority of votes.

Join in Aspergistan Federation: 414 votes

72%
Stay out: 144 votes
25.04%
Invalid: 17 votes
2.96%

HUMOUR AND COLLECTIVITY

IN DARK TIMES
M. CONSTANTINE
I’m standing near a small pavilion at the end of an otherwise empty parking
lot in (former East) Berlin. Once a gatehouse for the old Ostbahnhof train
station, the pavilion has recently begun its new life as the site of various art
interventions, a common enough fate. Today it’s being used as a translator’s
booth in a performative artwork called VREMEPLOV / TIME MACHINE
by the artist Clarissa Thieme. In it, nearly a dozen translators are sounding live
translations of dialogue from a home video created during the siege of Sarajevo.
A breeze is blowing the screen on which an image is projected: it’s a shitty VHS
recording, full of lovely technical glitches, scrolling bands of fuzz, early graphic
effects, articulated pixels, washed-out faces, and in-camera edits. Some boys in
Sarajevo are joking around, but seriously looking for a way out of the war. Today
is 11th June, 1993. The war has been going on for very long. I’ve tried everything to get
out, to save myself, nothing worked. The only thing left is to make this videotape that
I will give to my son, and he to his, and so on, until a time machine is invented and
Hamja Ahsan, The Aspergistan Referendum,
2019. Installation view at the 33rd Ljubljana Clarissa Thieme, VREMEPLOV / TIME someone watching it will come and get me out of this situation. They play it straight
Biennial of Graphic Arts, 2019. MACHINE, 2018. until they break, lapsing into a tender, fraternalistic horseplay; their laughter

44 45 CRACK UP – CRACK DOWN

 CANDID CAMERAS M. CONSTANTINE

I’ve arrived from the year 2037, to which our central character replies, How did
you get here so fast? (Classic time-travel humour.) The rescuer starts pressing
buttons on a small prop (a spare mini VHS cassette) and says, Here, I brought
this device, to bring you back to the year 2037. But alas: in an instant their elation
turns to despair when the device fails. The camera cuts to black and opens
on the same couch with a different actor: Today is 11th June, 1993. The war has
been going on for very long … This time, a traveller from the year 2320 shows
up, with more advanced technology – but suffers the same failure. The video
The DeLorean time machine. cycles through several takes, and finally, in the last scene, a traveller from the
year 2572 joins our main character, along with the two previous failed time-
travellers. He admonishes them for failing their missions – You are a disgrace to
the technology of your generations – and banishes them from the couch. He assures
our main character that they will escape in the superior time machine he has
just arrived in, which features an improved status field and battery pack. He
asks first, Do you really want to come to my year? And our friend replies, Any year
will do. Does it hurt? The hero from the future gets to work on his device and
suddenly – our wartime friend disappears (using the in-camera cut) – but he
remains. What happened? … I’m all alone. He turns the camera off.

Josip Broz Tito reading the Croatian satirical journal Feral Tribune, featuring an intimate look
at Croatian and Serbian Presidents Franjo Tuđman and Slobodan Milošević.

is contagious. In the video, they are speaking Bosnian.¹ And in this parking
lot, in the night heat, a crowd of people is standing around buying beers out of
the trunk of a car, listening to live translations of the video as it plays over and
over. It is translated with the kind of deadpan, affect-less delivery common to
voiceover translation practices throughout Eastern Europe,² into a dozen or so
prominent languages spoken in Berlin. In spite of all the translation work, it’s
funny to think that most people here, most of the time, are listening to words
they don’t understand. Even when they do, translations always want for a better
fidelity. But we’re here, laughing along with these guys, amidst the languages we
don’t understand, through a document of a situation we can’t possibly imagine.
And yet, on some visceral level, we get it. In this parking lot, on this night, we’re
receiving a broadcast to the future-present.
The video is a weird genre-bend that arcs through sci-fi, satire, and
wartime docu-drama. It is both a fantasy and a means of survival, a rescue
narrative by way of patriarchal futurism and technological retrogression. And TRIO Sarajevo, Wake Up, Europe!, 1993. U.S. President Bill Clinton speaking with Bosnian President Alija Izetbegović through
it is a document of play, friendship, and the necessary work of humour, used an interpreter, Tuzla, Bosnia, 1997.
to break the tension of imposed captivity and the threat of sniper warfare that
1. 2.
became the new quotidian normal during the siege. The video opens with a With its particular ways of condensing and distributing tension, sharpness,
Formerly known as See David Crowley’s single shot of a boy in his early 20s, sitting on a sofa, looking into the camera and dissonance, satire often serves as a more effective conduit for tragedy than
Serbo-Croatian and article, “Echo Translation”,
predominantly similar in Slavs and Tatars, Mirrors
and giving a sincere and humourless plea to an unknown addressee in a distant drama. The refrain Today is 11th June … signals the temporality and repetition
in its spoken and written for Princes (New York: NYU future: Today is 11th June, 1993. The war has been going on for very long … As of waiting through the seemingly interminable nightmare of the siege, just as it
forms but with the marked Abu Dhabi Art Gallery
inclusion of Turkish, and Zürich: JRP|Ringier,
he ends his entreaty, a seamless in-camera cut suddenly materialises another mimes comedic call-back structure. The rearticulated plea for rescue suggests the
Arabic, and Persian words, 2015). young man beside him: Hey, who are you? The rescuer says, I saw the tape and actual repeated requests for UN and intervention, arms, and humanitarian aid
Bosnian was recognised
in its modern form during
the 1990s. 46 47 CRACK UP – CRACK DOWN
 CANDID CAMERAS M. CONSTANTINE

during the four years of embattlement and embargo imposed on the city.³ And
the recursion of technical failure in spite of hopeful visitors from increasingly
distant futures reinforces the very intractability of their situation; in the end,
our friend escapes, but not without the sacrifice of three others. In its tone and
style, the video seems to riff on the popular Sarajevan sketch comedy show
Top Lista Nadrealista, but equally recalls Waiting for Godot – a production of
which, only months later, Susan Sontag was to direct (contentiously) at the
MESS International Theatre Festival.⁴ Throughout the video there are outtakes
where the actors break into laughter, out of character, and through the fourth
wall. The sci-fi tropes of time-travel and technical glitch drive the recursive
narrative, always wavering between Beckettian absurdity and a genuine desire
Dušan Petričič, Bosnian Childhood, 1994. for rescue and reparation.⁵

*  *  *

3. 6.
As reported by Nihad We can spot the
Kreševljaković, “U.S. relationship between affect,
President Bill Clinton technology, and collectivity Paul Chan, Untitled (After Robert Lynn Green Sr.), 2006. Photograph accompanying
was called ‘Bil-ne bil’ by in many times and places.
Chan’s production of Waiting for Godot in New Orleans.
Sarajevans because of his Masha Gessen recently
constant demur regarding reported on the life of
a military intervention. a video meme in Russia,
[Bil in Bosnian can be in which a group of cadets
… forge an imaginary for managing the meanwhile within damaged life’s
translated as ‘should I.’ filmed and inadvertently perdurance, a meanwhile that is less an end or an ethical scene than a technical
‘Bil-ne bil’ roughly published a homoerotic
translates to ‘should I or parody of a satirical music
political heuristic that allows for ambivalence, distraction, antagonism and
should I not’].” Al Jazeera video, “Satisfaction”, inattention not to destroy collective existence. … The question of politics becomes
Balkans, 22 November 2015. by musician Benny Benassi.
4. The video went viral,
identical with the reinvention of infrastructures for managing the unevenness,
Waiting for Godot has and as the cadets faced Satisfaction video meme by Russian builder cadets, 2018. ambivalence, violence, and ordinary contingency of contemporary existence.⁷
been produced numerous the threat of persecution,
times in dire contexts dozens of anonymous
that refract its content, and allied groups began “At some crisis times”, writes Lauren Berlant, “politics is defined by a collectively Even as the ordinary was assaulted on all fronts, the sci-fi video shows a politics
including multiple creating and posting their
performances throughout own “Satisfaction” video
held sense that a glitch has appeared in the reproduction of life.” During of survival and perdurance in its ever-provisional making. Its technology –
apartheid South Africa, parodies. By deploying the such times, she suggests, infrastructures of relation emerge – provisional yet the video camera itself (more reliable than the time machine; or is it the time
and by the artist Paul signifiers of homoeroticism,
Chan in post-Katrina the solidarity created
intimate social bonds, technologies, forms of representation, and distinct shared machine?) – becomes part of the political infrastructure, revealing the irruption
New Orleans, 2007. among the videos helped imaginaries – that “let a collectivity stay bound to the ordinary even as some and incongruities of everyday life, and at the same time trying to preserve some
5. to distribute risk differently
Robert Zemeckis’ 1998 across social strata,
of its forms of life are fraying, wasting …”⁶ Berlant is thinking here about long- sense of normalcy. Its affects, not least the comedic, create the galvanising mood
film Back to the Future is a deferring and diluting term, corrosive forms of “glitch” such as contemporary austerity politics, and the we feel across social bonds, through the tempo and editing style, in the shaky
lighter example; Octavia the initial threat from 7. 8.
Butler’s 1979 novel Kindred the cadets to sauna-goers,
violences of immigration policy and occupation. And though the word is hardly Lauren Berlant, “Camcorder, CD Sales
frame destabilised by the cameraman’s laughter.
innovates across genres retirees, nurses, EMTs, commensurate with the war crimes perpetrated in Sarajevo (the magnitude and “The commons: May Double in 1986” The camcorder initially entered the US market in 1985, and by its second
of sci-fi, historical novel, athletes, and agricultural Infrastructures for in New York Times,
grim fantasy, and slave workers. “How Russia’s
speed of unfolding crisis matters for what percentage of the ordinary remains troubling times” 2 June 1986.
year in production doubled its unit sales to one million.⁸ As free markets
narrative to explore the Hilarious, Homoerotic to hold fast to and how), it is a useful concept that works metonymically in in Environment and 9. gradually opened across Eastern Europe in the early 1990s, sales of consumer
effects of race, gender, and ‘Satisfaction’ Became Planning D: Society See Andrew E. Fletcher,
power in intimate relations, a Meme of Solidarity”,
the narrative of the wartime sci-fi video to grow the “infrastructural” – that is, and Space, Vol. 34 (3), The European Electronics
electronics (camcorders, colour televisions, CD players) helped drive economic
as the main character is in New Yorker, 22 January to cohere provisional forms of collectivity that p. 394. Industry Towards 1992: growth in spite of currency volatility.⁹ The camcorder became an important
shuttled in time between 2018. A Profile of Market
the antebellum South and Leaders (Elsevier Science
1970s California. 48 Publishers Ltd., 1991). 49 CRACK UP – CRACK DOWN
Pablo Bronstein, Plečnik decorative scheme
confusing some interior and exterior
architectural features, 2019. Installation
view at the 33rd Ljubljana Biennial
of Graphic Arts, 2019.
 CANDID CAMERAS M. CONSTANTINE

I CLEARLY REMEMBER THE FIRST device to forge new markets, and gave citizens a way of making and entering
JOKE I HEARD, A FEW MONTHS history through documentation of political changes and social transformation.
AFTER THE ATTACKS ON THE
CITY HAD STARTED. THIS WAS
Results of product R&D and consumer testing led manufacturers to privilege a
A PERIOD OF INTENSE SNIPER reduction in camera size, ease of use, and increased portability over image quality;
SHOOTING AND THE BEGINNING Sony’s lightweight, revolutionary Handycam was touted as “perfect for people
OF CIGARETTE SHORTAGES. on the go.”¹⁰ Thus the ‘shitty’ aesthetic and visual noise that provokes nostalgia
MUJO AND SULJO (RECURRING
today (especially amidst ever more smooth virtual realities) was a result of
CHARACTERS IN BOSNIAN JOKES) deliberately under-engineered light capture technologies. Yet improvements in
ARE RUNNING ACROSS A ROAD. VHS and integrated microphones from earlier generations of 8mm and 16mm
SUDDENLY, A SNIPER BULLET home film cameras allowed audio data to be captured, rendering more sensorially
SEVERS MUJO’S EAR!
rich environments. In a pocket of history after the Cold War and before the
MUJO RETURNS TO THE MIDDLE OF internet, the early 1990s was a seminal time in media; widespread use of portable
THE ROAD AND STARTS LOOKING recording devices presaged the social transformations and political power that
FOR SOMETHING WHILE BULLETS smartphones would bring a decade later. But then, as now, broader corporate
FLY ALL AROUND HIM.
flows, market diagnostics, and technical proficiencies in certain corners of the
REALISING THAT HE IS LOOKING globe set conditions of possibility for the aesthetics and pragmatics of mediated
FOR HIS EAR, SULJO SHOUTS: social formations elsewhere. Street sign for Susan Sontag Square, Susan Sontag in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, 1993.
FORGET THE EAR, THE SNIPER VREMEPLOV was in fact one among many home videos created during Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina.
WILL KILL YOU.
the siege. Encouraged in part by the televised request of municipal police lives and realities.¹² Sounds of air sirens, shellings, laughter, breath, gunfire,
MUJO REPLIES: I DON’T CARE chief Dragan Vikić in the early months of warfare, residents of Sarajevo took broken glass and rubble underfoot, shouts, shock, music, and calls to prayer
ABOUT THE EAR, BUT I HAD A up their home video cameras as weapons. As one of the tactical measures he 12. 15.
were among some of the more salient sonic details recorded by residents
CIGARETTE STUCK BEHIND IT. suggested alongside organising citizen militia defence groups, Vikić implored, Contemporary, post- Sontag would die in 2004, of Sarajevo during the siege. These populate and punctuate documentation
internet media collectives after living with disease
“I would really like to ask you to appeal, if you can, to all citizens who own such as Abounaddara for the better part of three
of attacks, television news broadcasts, domestic scenes of boredom, hunger,
video cameras to start filming, as their material will definitely have an effect.”¹¹ (Syria), Active Stills decades. One can speculate and cold, children playing, funerals, weddings, sniper brigades, comical skits,
(Israel / Palestine), and whether her experience of
The need to record derived as much from an understanding of how the siege the Karrabing Film prolonged illness changed
makeshift medical care, mosques, and vulnerable food lines that comprised
was being perceived – or rather misrepresented – in the international media, Collective (Australia) her sensitivity to risk. residents’ everyday lives. Flipping the script of journalistic media through which
work in analogous 16.
as from an impulse to document the incomprehensible destruction of their ways, intervening in John F. Burns, “To Sarajevo,
the conflict was otherwise portrayed, the footage is largely narrated by the
representations of Writer Brings Good Will exclamations of citizens: They’ve burned Mojmilo Hall?! [the cinema]; Feels the
war, political conflict, and ‘Godot’” in New York
and extractive capital, Times, 19 August 1993.
same as ‘41 …; and – not without a little dark humour – Don’t be afraid! There are
and creating critical 17. no snipers here … only mortars … hahaha. Minor but poignant roles are played
concepts and practices. See the critical texts of
13. Milica Bakić-Hayden,
by politicians and diplomats; British Foreign Secretary and peace negotiator
Clarissa Thieme reflects “Nesting Orientalisms: David Owen makes a brief appearance with his famously patronising address to
on the significance of The Case of Former
this statement and the Yugoslavia” in Slavic
Bosnians, “Don’t dream dreams”.¹³ The double-layer of representation – a video
effect it had on Sarajevans’ Review 54:4 (1995); and recording of a TV broadcast – stresses the sense of remove and alienation at
sense of temporality and Maria Todarova, Imagining
waiting in an interview the Balkans (Oxford:
being the third party non-addressee in public performances of British
with Jana Seehusen, Oxford University Press, tough-love diplomacy.
“About the ‘Feeling of 1997).
Being in Transition’” in 18.
Indeed, as Sontag later recalled, French philosopher Andre Glucksmann
Temporary Art Review, These reviews were from had argued that “the war would be won or lost not by anything that happened
25 September 2018. the same journalists
14. who were on assignment
in Sarajevo, or indeed in Bosnia, but by what happened in the media.”¹⁴ Sontag
The 1985 Sony Video 8 AF Handycam is Susan Sontag, Regarding covering the war. Sontag characterised the dissolution of Yugoslavia and conflict in Bosnia as “the
the Pain of Others would encounter them
the first of its kind to have an 8mm cassette
(New York: Picador, 2003), during her stay at the
Spanish Civil War of our time”, and admonished America’s intellectual elite
recording feature.
p. 84. See also “Waiting Holiday Inn, the only for their conspicuous absence too, suggesting that it was not fear of danger that
for Godot in Sarajevo”, functioning hotel in
in Performing Arts Journal Sarajevo at the time.
kept them away,¹⁵ but something more ominous, a “failure of conscience”.¹⁶
16:2 (1994). Sontag contrasts Pervasive “Balkanism” and Islamophobia – on behalf of politicians, journalists,
10. 11. her own involvement to
Sony Annual Report 1990, Nihad Kreševljaković Three men run for cover as sniper fire rings out along Sarajevo’s notorious “sniper alley”, that of Glucksmann and
and intellectuals – also didn’t go unnoticed.¹⁷ Though her production of Godot
p. 6. https://www.sony.net/ and Sead Kreševljaković, Wednesday, 9 June 1993. other French intellectuals, was widely and vituperatively panned in Western media,¹⁸ Sontag’s presence in
SonyInfo/IR/library/ Do you remember Sarajevo? referring to them as
ar/1990-E.pdf. Accessed film, 2003. “day-trippers” to Sarajevo
17 May 2019. 52 during the war years. 53 CRACK UP – CRACK DOWN
 CANDID CAMERAS M. CONSTANTINE

Sarajevo was warmly received – she was even awarded honorary citizenship by Every evening around midnight, they would descend into the basement to view
the mayor. Haris Pašović, a collaborator and producer of the play, evaded Serbian material, select fragments and do rough edits. The only problem was: they never
gunfire in order to return to the city. “We want to make our lives as normal as systematically ordered all those tapes, and dreamers as they were, they didn’t
possible”, he said, “We want our work to be impeccable.”¹⁹ Actress Ines Fančović, care. Which meant that they would more or less start all over again every night.
who played the role of Pozo, stated, “Acting is a kind of therapy for me. If I didn’t At first, I thought this was traumatized madness, even though they approached
work almost every day I would find it very difficult to live through this war. The their work with cheerful, boundless energy. Every time I visited, they would
shelling and the death of many friends so far has shaken me, but acting helps proudly take me down to the basement, tell me that they had – again – barely
me forget.”²⁰ As schools, cinemas, and other cultural institutions were subject to made any progress – and laugh their irresistible laughs as if this was the best
targeted attacks, music, movies, and theatre continued in makeshift, bombed-out joke in the world.²¹
spaces. Though the intent of the home videos was to intervene in representations
of the war, to solicit humanitarian and military aid, they became artefacts of a Before an emergency joint session of Time and repeated overdubbing would create generational loss through
broader effort to preserve culture and its making through dark times. Congress yesterday, President Clinton the deterioration of the magnetic film in which video and audio data had
announced U.S. plans to deploy over 75,000
vowels to the war-torn region of Bosnia.
been encoded. But in important ways, the Kreševljaković brothers created
The deployment, the largest of its kind in opportunities for memory – however unstable – to be preserved and shared.
American history, will provide the region with As the years passed and Sarajevans who fled the city during the siege began
the critically needed letters A, E, I, O and U, to return, the brothers organised screenings of the home videos. These doubled
and is hoped to render countless Bosnian
names more pronounceable.
as a way of retelling histories. They offered a place to express guilt for those who
The deployment, dubbed Operation left, and to work trauma and anger for those who stayed. They underscored new
Vowel Storm by the State Department, is set social rifts and unlikely solidarities borne of the conflict.
for early next week, with the Adriatic port Do You Remember Sarajevo? was completed ten years after VREMEPLOV,
cities of Sjlbvdnzv and Grzny slated to be the
first recipients. Two C-130 transport planes,
in 2003. It stands as a singular document of a city under siege and an indictment
each carrying over 500 24-count boxes of of regional perpetrators and their international conspirators. The editing plays
“E’s,” will fly from Andrews Air Force Base with poetic visual riffs and rhyme schemes across the fragmented footage; sound
across the Atlantic and airdrop the letters is often deliberately mis-synchronised. There are repeated scenes of someone
over the cities.
Sachiko Kazama, War-Pup, 2005.
The airdrop represents the largest
filming from the windows while a friend or family member behind them tells
deployment of any letter to a foreign country them to get away from the windows because … it’s a sniper, or … they’re shelling.
since 1984. During the summer of that year, In an instant, the orthography of the frame drops, shakes, succumbs to the need
the U.S. shipped 92,000 consonants to to navigate a dangerous environment. This makes the risk of seeing and shooting
Ethiopia, providing cities like Ouaouoaua,
Eaoiiuae, and Aao with vital, life-giving
(footage) palpable. Betraying the comedic sensibilities of the editors, short skits
supplies of L’s, S’s and T’s. feature amongst scenes of everyday violence. After a fresh snowfall – which often
—The Onion, December 1995 offered a brief reprieve from the shelling and snipers²² – several young friends
take to the streets with their skis. Later, there is a mock-Olympic ceremony:
Stane Jagodič, Memorial of Sarajevo Martyrs, 1992. The winner will receive a kilo of powdered milk. The runner-up will receive some used
feta cheese. And where is the third one? One of the others answers, Oh, he got killed.
This is juxtaposed with a scene showing one of the actors who has just pulled
*  *  * a bullet from his right shoulder using a set of pliers. Further articulating a sense
Several characters from the VREMEPLOV video played key roles in this of cognitive dissonance, Muhamed Kreševljaković, father of Nihad and Sead and
cultural preservation, and were instrumental in holding a tenuous continuity then mayor of Sarajevo, is featured in a news clip: “So, something I was once
over a longer historical arc. As residents of Sarajevo amassed thousands of hours told is now proving to be correct. I was told to count only on the things that are
of documentary footage throughout the siege, twin brothers Nihad and Sead illogical when I once said this city could not be bombed and attacked because
Kreševljaković gave up the basement of their family home as a holding space for it would be illogical. Now everything logical can be thrown away as that for
this material. After the siege ended in 1995, they continued to be the unofficial 21. 22. sure is not going to happen.”²³ Do You Remember Sarajevo? finds fidelity in its
From an introductory David Rieff, “Midnight in
archivists of the city’s witness to itself. In the decade that followed, the brothers address at the 2019 Kairos Sarajevo”, in The Atlantic,
fragmentation.
began poring through the videos, and eventually started compiling and editing Prize Awards, which Nihad April 2000. Do You Remember Sarajevo? was also completed the same year Sontag
Kreševljaković was awarded 23.
the footage into what would become their documentary Do You Remember for his longstanding role Nihad Kreševljaković
published Regarding the Pain of Others, an extended meditation on photographic
19. 20. Sarajevo?. Friend and writer Chris Keulemans describes their process: in theatre programming and Sead Kreševljaković, representations of war. As a rejoinder to her previous work, she asserts that
Burns, “To Sarajevo”. As told to Kevin Weaver, and cultural projects in Do you remember Sarajevo?
“Culture under siege”, Sarajevo. 28 April 2019, film, 2003.
The Stage, 25 August 1993. 54 Hamburg, Germany. 55 CRACK UP – CRACK DOWN
Lawrence Abu Hamdan, The All-Hearing,
2014. Installation view at the 33rd Ljubljana
Biennial of Graphic Arts, 2019.
 CANDID CAMERAS M. CONSTANTINE

MUJO IS LOOKING FOR HIS UNIT’S there can be no “ecology of images” properly tempered to a (presumed) ethical
POSTS ON TREBEVIĆ MOUNTAIN consumption, but laments the proliferation and ambivalence of journalistic,
AND HE RUNS INTO A BATTALION
OF SERBIAN SOLDIERS.
broadcast, and advertising media for dulling moral and political sensibilities.
Sontag wants that a photographic image (with an emphasis on the graphic)
THEY ASK HIM: DO YOU KNOW WHO should have the power to incite individuals to action – especially those of us
WE ARE? who “can’t understand, can’t imagine.”²⁴ Though intertwined at particular
AND MUJO REPLIES: GOD WILLING
points in their making, Remember and Regarding suggest two very different
AND INSHA’ALLAH – YOU ARE politics of the image that mobilise through divergent temporalities, imaginaries,
CANDID CAMERA. affects, and collectivities. The failures, protraction, and intransigence of the one
forced the other. In contrast to extractive journalistic media that circulated
widely and quickly, for money, and with some political intent, the home videos
show alternative genealogies of image-making as part of the “reinvention of Mirror neurons. Sample photographs taken
infrastructures” for surviving the everyday. Its transmissions do the long, slow, from videos of infants imitating an adult
experimenter.
recursive work of culture over time. In the tragicomedy of Waiting for Godot we
can perhaps best see these mutually constituted politics of image-making together.
26. 30.
Norbert Elias, “Essay on “Traumedy” is a recently
Intervention in public space at the Skenderija Bridge, Sarajevo. Šejla Kamerić, Naida Begeta
*  *  *
Laughter” in special issue of coined term (an update
Critical Inquiry: Comedy has to “tragicomic”) used to and Enes Huseinčehajić, Do you remember Sarajevo?, 2002.
Issues 43:2 (Winter 2017), describe a genre of comedic
Nihad and Sead turned the collection of home videos in their basement into Lauren Berlant and Sianne performance that explores
an archive, naming it after their grandfather Hamdija Kreševljaković, the Ngai, eds., p. 301. tension as a medium of of different parts and at different levels form an ensemble.”²⁶ This ensemble is
27. comedic pleasure and
preeminent Bosnian historian who founded the Department of History at In laughter Thomas personal pain. See stand-up
a kind of disjunctive togetherness across scales – riffing and vibrating through
Sarajevo University. Hamdija was famous for collecting oral histories to comprise Hobbes identified a sets Nanette by Hannah bodies, oxygenating the organs, exciting endorphins, stimulating mirror neurons,
capacity for social ruin, Gadsby and Boyish Girl
a kind of ethnographic “people’s history” of Ottoman and Austro-Hungarian the “brutishness” of life Interrupted by Tig Notaro.
communicating, connecting – to animate the whole social body. Elias’ is a niche
Empires. Reflecting on this continuity, Clarissa Thieme remarked that for Nihad on full display; to be 31. theory of laughter, apart from those that many political theorists have offered,
laughed at – in a moment John Morreall, “Humor
and Sead the video archive “comes from that tradition [but is] translated to of “sudden glory” for a in the Holocaust:
which tend to accentuate its effects as a technology of social dominance, or as
their practices and their time.” A few years ago, Nihad and Clarissa, together social opponent – elicited Its Critical, Cohesive, something that moves us toward behavioural conformity.²⁷ To be sure, humour
more shame, more risk, and Coping functions.”
with artist and scholar Jasmina Gavrankapetanović, founded Izmedzu Nas more fear; Henri Bergson Paper presented at
is a privilege afforded unequally and unpredictably by some.²⁸ It also opens
(Between Us) as a way of opening the archive to other interested scholars and understood laughter as the Annual Scholars’ up just as often as it closes down. Though at best it may have the capacity
“… something mechanical Conference on
artists. The project provides a space for the exchange of stories that run counter encrusted upon the living.” the Holocaust, 1997.
to speak truth to power, in its everyday expressions it is more likely to offer
to public and political discourses about the Bosnian War, and especially offers 28. 32. a fresh reveal of structures of social difference; by which we differently suffer
This is particularly true Nihad Kreševljaković,
those who left and those who stayed a way to tell their stories. For Thieme, who in the historical narrative “Humor under siege:
the (often accidental) comedic candour of others as a series of minor assaults.²⁹
encountered the VREMEPLOV video in the Hamdija Kreševljaković Video presented here, which likely Mujo, don’t jump around, But as Elias suggests, though it is always agnostic to its moral content,
skews radically differently you’ll get hungry”,
Archive, and through a longstanding friendship with the brothers, the laughter in through gender, urban / in Al Jazeera Balkans,
laughter’s properties of embodiment, cohesion, and distribution have the capacity
the video – so effervescent, so effecting – provided a point of access, some sense rural, political, and religious 22 November 2015. to dispel the tension it is not possible for a body to hold.³⁰ So-called “gallows
difference.
of things beyond sensationalised news coverage and dramatic tropes through 29.
humour”, dark humour, or what André Breton called humour noir, often works
which the war was so often narrated. It gave a glimpse of what life was like inside Claudia Rankine’s Citizen this way. It moves in feral forms through affects and aesthetic expressions, and
shows the brutality of
domestic spaces during the siege, and how intimacy was transformed. “Humour being candid, and the quick
maintains what some have said are its “critical, cohesive, and coping functions.”³¹
opens a space of reflection to take a step aside, to look from a different angle. deflation of a humorous It can play offense (see Monty Python’s “The Funniest Joke in the World” sketch)
remark in intimate spaces
It opens up to others, it relates.”²⁵ of friendship structured
or defence (Hannah Arendt’s contentious reading of the Kafkaesque into the
Laughter here is a mode of communicative vectoring distinct from, but by racial difference. As she figure of Adolf Eichmann). And as a sister of satire, it offers an important caveat
describes in conversation
Hannah Gadsby, who popularised the genre not unlike, translation. Sociologist Norbert Elias pointed to its embodied and with Lauren Berlant,
to an intellectual genealogy of humour that has located its (hopes for) political
of “Traumedy” with her Netflix stand-up transversal aspects: “We know that laughter involves changes at various levels “Everyone is having a good agency in discursivity more than bare life itself. As Nihad offered in a recent
special Nanette, 2018. time together – doing what
in the person who laughs. There are changes, to mention some, in the blood they do, buying what they
article, “Humour was without a doubt an important survival tool under the
circulation and the intestines, changes of feeling, of the awareness of others and can afford, going where extreme conditions of the Sarajevo siege, and an important means in the defense
they go – until they are not.
ourselves, and, of course, changes in our respiration and our face. One can say The break in the encounter
of citizens of Sarajevo. It was nothing less than a realistic indicator that there
24. 25. that the whole organism is involved when a person laughs and that changes wouldn’t wound without was still hope.”³² In certain contexts, the biopolitical stakes of humour come
Susan Sontag, Regarding From an interview with the presumed intimacy
the Pain of Others (New Clarissa Thieme, 14 May and the good times.” Bomb
York: Picador, 2003), p. 98. 2019, Berlin, Germany. 58 Magazine, 1 October 2014. 59 CRACK UP – CRACK DOWN
 CANDID CAMERAS

TOWARDS THE END OF THE WAR, into stark relief. Jokes become tools in the art of living, and camcorders weapons
THERE WAS A JOKE ABOUT MUJO of survival, working together to intervene in representations of the graphic
AND SULJO, WITH ONE OF THEM
SPENDING THE WAR ABROAD AS
dimensions of war; or figuring through the prolongation of a glitch.
A REFUGEE, AND THE OTHER ONE
SPENDING THE WAR UNDER SIEGE.

BOTH EXHAUSTED BY THEIR

EXPERIENCES, THEY DECIDE TO
TAKE THE TUNNEL. ONE WANTS

BETWEEN
TO RETURN TO SARAJEVO, AND
THE OTHER WANTS TO ESCAPE
FROM IT.

THREE
THEY MEET EXACTLY IN THE
MIDDLE OF THE TUNNEL AND
SHOUT AT THE SAME TIME:

REVOLUTIONS
WHERE THE F**K ARE YOU GOING!

*
Nihad Kreševljaković,
“Humor under siege:
Mujo, don’t jump around,
you’ll get hungry,”
in Al Jazeera Balkans,
22 November 2015. Monty Python, The Funniest Joke in the World, 1969.

NOTES ON THE HISTORY OF

IRANIAN POLITICAL SATIRE
PAVLIHA MOHAMMAD SALEMY
Pavliha is Slovenian folk figure, known question of the borders between Italy and puppet theatre between the World Wars. The history of socio-ethical satire in Iran led by Ayatollah Khomeini, political satire a social critique of Iranian societies, both
as a joker, a funny and roguish person. Austria) and other domestic and foreign The puppeteer Jože Pengov voiced prior to the Constitutional Revolution of returned to an age-old criticism of Islamic at home and amongst the diaspora, while
A humble folk hero, Pavliha is a cunning, enemies (fascists, Nazis, imperialists, and animated the Pavliha character 1905 stretches back to medieval times, and morality while keeping its anti-imperialist maintaining their focus on Islamism and other
wise-fool who seems to always disrupt war criminals, traitors, reactionaries, in skits on Radio Ljubljana and in includes figures like Obeid Zakani, Hafiz, impulses. This new but short-lived political forms of moralism and hypocrisy, which still
the social order as he pursues an endless and church dignitaries). theatres. He later founded the Ljubljana Saadi, and Baba Tahir. Far from assimilating satire, represented mostly in the Marxist dominate public political discourse in Iran.
series of misadventures. He is seen as Additionally, the ethnologist Dr. Niko Puppet Theatre, bringing Pavliha to Western genres, Persian literary satire had weekly satirical paper Ahanger ( ),
the Slovenian equivalent to characters Kuret helped popularise Pavliha in Slovenian wider audiences. The work of these its own theories, which divided the discourse not only criticised the revolutionary state’s
such as Pulcinella (Italy), Kasperl two men was part of the larger Sokol into the categories of MOTAYEBEH gradual attempt at imposing an Islamic
(Germany), Punch (U.K.), and Petrushka (Falcon) puppetry movement, prominent ( ), meant as light and pleasant moral code on society, but also exaggerated
(Russia). The figure of the Pavliha was throughout Central and Eastern Europe jokes, HAJ’V ( ), the opposite of the still-illegal actions of pro-Khomeini
instrumentalised in various forms of during this interim period. Developing praise, and HA Z’L ( ) criticism organisations and individuals. This produced
political and popular media throughout from the traveling puppet shows and that contains sexually explicit content. what I call Speculative Political Satire.
the 19th-century. The writer and editor performances in small, makeshift “family Throughout this history, the razor-sharp It painted a picture of a future Iran under
Fran Levstik (1831–1887) published theatres” during the 19th-century, the edge of Persian satire was aimed mostly the total control of Islamists, and used this
the influential satirical journal Pavliha Sokol movement saw the emergence of at the Royal Court and other wealthy people speculation as a wake-up call to secular
beginning in 1870. This featured political new institutions, including associations, for their excesses, and the clergy for their Iranians who weren’t sure which way the
commentary, humorous columnists, trade schools, and puppet theatres, that hypocrisies in enforcing Islamic morality. revolution was heading. Forty years later, this
and an abundance of caricatures that merged folk performance and sculptural During the reign of the Pahlavis, satire turned rich historical legacy has now fallen on the
over time targeted Western capitalist traditions with new avant-garde to politics; as a result of censorship, satirists shoulders of a younger generation of political
countries (with issues such as the aesthetics and political content. took to criticising the regime by poking fun at satirists using new mediums like Twitter,
Iran’s hegemonic allies like the U.K. and the texts, and Instagram memes in the context
U.S. As a result of the 1979 Islamic Revolution of global social media. They are providing

60 61 CRACK UP – CRACK DOWN

 BETWEEN THREE REVOLUTIONS MOHAMMAD SALEMY

The original logo for Ahangar Satirical Weekly

(in black) as it appeared in its first issue,
printed over the logo (in red) of an earlier
paper called Chalangar, published in the
late 1940s and early 1950s by Mohammad
Ali Afrashteh (pictured), a member of the
Iranian Communist (Toudeh) Party. This act,
protested immediately by the Party, was
meant to suggest a historical continuity
between the two papers in terms of form
and content.

The original slogan of Chalangar, written

above the red star, reads: “Be broken: the pen
and the hand, which disobeys from serving
the needy.”

Published a few months before the 1953 coup

that deposed the democratically elected
Prime Minister Mossadegh, the cartoon
depicts Mohammad Reza Pahlavi alongside
the King of Iran and Queen Soraya, embodied
as cats. The King eats from the state funds,
(which belong to the people), while the Prime
Minister tries to shoo him away. The old man The cartoon speculates a possible sexual
in the background represents the Iranian segregation of television in the Islamic
people. Republic. It depicts Sadegh Ghotbzadehm,
the first director of the Iranian National Radio
The caption reads: “Are you really expecting and Television Broadcasting Company after
to eat while I pretend I am the cat? the revolution. On the right, the masculine-
Meow, meow, meow.” looking female television announcer who,
it is suggested, was hired because of her
“bad looks” (so as to not sexually provoke
the male viewers), is covered in Islamic
headdress.

The caption reads: “The gender

segregated television.”

Above the image: “Retired professionals will be reinvited to work.”

The Constitutional Angel to the Minister: “Swear to god I was retired
during the last government.” (Referring to the 1953 coup.)

62 63 CRACK UP – CRACK DOWN

BETWEEN THREE REVOLUTIONS MOHAMMAD SALEMY

The cartoon depicts the state of the revolution and the transitional government ministers
including Prime Minister Bazargan, Minister of Culture Minachi, and Minister of Labour
Forouhar (later murdered by rouge elements of the information ministry in 1998). While it is
the heavyweight of Islamic fundamentalism (depicted by the traditional-looking fat man) that
is sinking the ship of the revolution, the State throws freedom of press (the woman in a white
dress), workers, and ethnic minorities into the sea to reduce the weight of the vessel.

This future-oriented cartoon points to the real possibility of sexual segregation for unborn
children in an Islamic Iran.

This cartoon deals with the tricks used on

the educated Iranian middle class by the
post-revolutionary state media to convince
them to participate in the 1979 referendum
A nurse from the maternity ward presents and vote yes for the Islamic Republic system.
a newborn to her father.
The caption reads from top: “Before
The caption reads: “Congratulations, the referendum, during the referendum,
your baby is a girl.” after the referendum.”

64 65 CRACK UP – CRACK DOWN

 BETWEEN THREE REVOLUTIONS MOHAMMAD SALEMY

Produced by Kasra Rahmanian, a Milan-

based young queer Iranian artist, this
SEX Instagram meme account focuses on

IRAN ART TRADE PORNO contradictions within Iranian culture as they

pertain to politics de jure, and uses humour

SCENE MOVIE to advocate LGBT rights.

The caption reads: (left) “Iranian history

killing itself to teach a lesson to Iranians.”
(right) “Iranians.”
PEOPLE
GETTING
FUCKED

CORRUPTION WORKING
AND MONEY FOR MONEY
LAUNDERING

ITALIAN
MAFIA

Taken from blogs, Facebook, and Instagram,

the account focuses exclusively on visual
The popular Instagram account phenomena coming from the Islamic Republic
“iran_art_meme” produces humorous of Iran in its fourth decade of existence,
daily memes about the affairs of the exposing the bizarre and unexplainable
tight-knit contemporary art scene in Iran, manifestations that result from the inevitable
often blending sharp social criticism with blend of modern life, technology, and the
poignant graphics. religious state.

66 67 CRACK UP – CRACK DOWN

BETWEEN THREE REVOLUTIONS

TAKING CARE OF
YOURSELF IS
DETRIMENTAL
The image points to the legal inequality
between men and women built into
Islamic law.

TO YOUR HEALTH
ALENKA PIRMAN & KULA

We, Slovenes, are a sporting nation and it had (Sekcija za biopolitično teorijo in prakso DETRIMENTAL EFFECTS OF
been long believed that half of health – both Slovenskega etnološkega in antropološkega PHYSICAL ACTIVITY – EVEN
physical and mental – stems from exercise. združenja KULA, hereafter referred to as CHILDREN ARE AT RISK!
Especially so if it takes place outdoors, BPaTaPD), whose mission is to monitor and
in nature. However, the latest scientific study the evolution, anatomy, and physiology When the data was contextualised,
findings reveal the opposite: not only is of the lungs of Slovenes, has uncovered the immense popularity and frequency
exercise not beneficial, it is even harmful! a number of significant facts. The most of outdoor recreational activities stood
Due to a particular physical characteristic of noteworthy thereof are the following: In the out. Even the youngest are encouraged
Slovenes, i.e, for the above-average volume period 1977–1997 the average lung volume to exercise: we try to get preschoolers
and exceptional vital capacity of our lungs, increased by 9.7%, and by a further 11.2% accustomed to physical activity. In primary
exercise turns out to be harmful, and physical in the years 1997–2017 (see diagram at the schools, a mandatory daily hour of physical
activity results in poisoning ourselves. Thus bottom of following page). Similar changes education is being introduced; children
taking care of ourselves, as we knew it, is are also observable with regard to lung participate in mass recreation events,
actually detrimental to our health! strength, i.e, the vital capacity of Slovene and a variety of after-school activities are
lungs, which increased from 3.8 litres four offered. Furthermore, different forms of
decades ago to 5.1 litres by the end of the aerobic exercise predominate, e.g, walking,
THE VITAL CAPACITY OF 1990s, and currently amounts to 6.0 litres. running, cycling, mountaineering, swimming,
OUR LUNGS IS ONE OF Comparing the results of our studies with and cross-country skiing. These are forms
THE HIGHEST IN EUROPE! those obtained by researchers abroad of exercise that have been shown to
reveals stagnation in the development of strengthen the respiratory system.
A long-term study carried out by the the lungs of almost all other Europeans,
Domestic Research Institute (Inštitut za which raises the question of why the situation
A member of the Revolutionary Guard with a gun in his hand, separating a couple in bed. domače raziskave, hereafter referred to as is so very different for Slovenes.
the DRI) and the Biopolitical Theory and
The caption reads: “I’m not convinced; there is nothing in your marriage contract about Practice Division of the Slovene Ethnological
sleeping next to each other.” and Anthropological Association KULA

68 69 CRACK UP – CRACK DOWN

 TAKING CARE OF YOURSELF IS DETRIMENTAL TO YOUR HEALTH ALENKA PIRMAN & KULA

RESEARCH REVEALS: 6-monoacetylmorphine, which forms in THE “SMALL HEARTS” OF of athletes among Slovenes the health
WE ARE EXPOSED 180.11 the brain in a way that is not yet understood. SLOVENES EXPLAINED! budget is suffering, a situation that will only
TO ENORMOUS RISK Perhaps the reason for the formation of this be exacerbated in the future. Moreover,
AND DANGER! dangerous compound is the extraordinary The first anomalies have already appeared. for now it is impossible to imagine what
ability of Slovenes to inhale elements found in Preliminary measurements of the organs the consequences will be for each individual,

substances (in μg)

amount of inhaled
So what exactly is the problem? Why would the air. Thus, the popular notion that Slovenes most active in physical exertion reveal an and not least the whole nation, if we continue
something hitherto deemed to be beneficial are obsessed with recreational activity is well unusual effect on the heart. Also in this to live in the manner that we have thus far,
be actually harmful? Why have these explained and justified. regard new questions have arisen whose and further encourage our children, who are
anatomical and physiological gains turned out 87.77 In short, based on measurements, answers require further research, but it already too active, to pursue physical activity.
to be a Pyrrhic victory for us? Twenty years we at BPaTaPD have determined that during would seem that lung growth has been too
ago, the idea that strengthening the lungs physical exercise Slovenes breathe into rapid for the growth of the thorax and ribs.
could produce an anomaly seemed like an
40.84 their over-developed, almost superhumanly This disproportionality has created a real LET’S TAKE ACTION NOW!
odd, even ridiculous, notion. Today, however, large and well-functioning lungs and logjam in the chest and severely limited
it is becoming apparent that this idea, which 19.45 therefore take vast amounts of various the space available for heart function and In order to prevent the worst-case scenario,
4.41 9.26
in the past only the most cynical a person 2.10 pollutants into their bodies. Namely, it can growth. The result is a deformation of the we must act now. Everyone is responsible
could have dreamt up, is unfortunately true. be noted that by strengthening the lungs heart, which is becoming ever smaller, for his or her own health. At this time, the
Due to a variety of factors whose 5.7 5.8 5.9 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 and increasing the frequency of hyperpnoea, especially among enthusiastic athletes and BPaTaPD can do nothing else but invite
effects on the body and spirit are only i.e, the phases of prolonged breathing Slovenes in general. At the same time, the responsible and dedicated individuals to
now being discovered, large and powerful
vital capacity (in l) effort – as can be seen in, for example, possibility of serious heart failure or even an limit their recreational activities, although
lungs pose an enormous risk and danger – aerobic forms of exercise – the absorption acute myocardial infarction (which has been we are aware that the solutions must also
especially for those who are physically active of gases and particulates found in the air witnessed in recent years at several mass be systemic. Therefore, the BPaTaPD is
outdoors on a regular basis. As is well known, increases exponentially! recreational sporting events) is increasing. formulating a set of proposals that we will
air in Slovenia, especially in the vicinity of It is certain that due to the higher percentage shortly submit to the Ministry of Health
major cities and in valleys and basins, is
heavily polluted. Higher levels of PM10 and
z2.5 particles, which pass through the alveoli
of the lungs and into the bloodstream, and
production of 6-mono-
thus throughout the body, are being recorded
extrinsic allergic acetylmorphine; excessive
on a regular basis. It has been proven
that such particles increase the mortality alveolitis or various sense of enthusiasm; loss
rate through increasing the likelihood of
forms of pneumoconiosis, of rationality; addiction to
respiratory and cardiovascular diseases.
They are particularly dangerous when depending on the organic physical activity; Parkinson’s
they contain heavy metals, which intensify
inflammations, increase the degree of tissue or inorganic source of disease; Alzheimer’s disease
death, have negative consequences for the
functioning of the brain and nervous system,
dust and particulates;
and influence the onset of Parkinson’s and + 11.2 % lung fibrosis
Alzheimer’s diseases, etc.
+ 9.7 %
The same holds true of nitrogen
dioxide, carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide,
and benzene. Benzene is especially
average vital capacity

dangerous. According to the IARC, it is

classified as a Group 1 carcinogen (the link
decrease in volume
is most evident with regard to leukemia and and reduction;
of Slovene lungs

other forms of blood cancer). Yet awareness

of the hazard posed by this substance has heart failure; leukemia; various
not yet been cultivated in the general public.
acute myocardial forms of cancer
In Slovenia, measurement of the content of
benzene in the atmosphere has only recently infarction
commenced. The situation is similar for
airborne micro- and nanoplastics, whose
negative effects we can only guess at. 3.8 l 5.1 l 6.0 l
Furthermore, it has been hypothesised
that the relaxation and enthusiasm one
experiences during physical activity vital before increase increase
are a consequence of the compound capacity 1977 until 1997 until 2017

70 71 CRACK UP – CRACK DOWN

TAKING CARE OF YOURSELF IS DETRIMENTAL TO YOUR HEALTH

and the Ministry of Education, Science, chair or even an armchair in which one
and Sport. These will be related to higher fits comfortably, and a good book, movie,
taxes on sports equipment (running shoes, or computer game. In such manner, after
bicycles, etc.), the introduction of a duty on a long and exhausting day of work, we will
recreational activities, the replacement of exercise our minds without burdening the
physical education in primary and secondary respiratory and cardiovascular system.
schools with lessons on the culture of By reducing the number of hours spent on
stillness, and an increase in state subsidies a running track or bicycle we will at least
in the field of sitting aids, as well as tax cuts slightly reduce our biological intake of toxic
for businesses that discourage and limit airborne substances, and as well retard, if
the movement of their employees. not redirect, the development of Slovene
But, as we know all too well, bureaucratic lungs. In order to raise public awareness
mills are far too slow to do their job properly and promote stillness, we are organising
and promptly. The only way to act in the the first traditional Sit-down for a Good
current situation is to reduce the time we Purpose Festival, which means sitting for
spend exercising / on recreational activities those who can’t (more information to come
without delay, if we cannot completely soon). In truth, everyone is responsible for
renounce it. Every ending is difficult, but his or her own health. It is only by properly
we must try. caring for ourselves that we can ensure
Those who have given stillness the welfare everyone!
a chance have learnt to love it. In order
to be still, most effectively, one needs a

DAVID CROWLEY
‘IDIOTS JUST LIKE US’
Punk arrived in fits and starts in Eastern Europe in the late 1970s. In some
places, it sprouted from little more than a misheard rumour or an accidental
encounter on the airwaves. In Leningrad, Yevgeny Yufit, later known for his
lickerish Necrorealist films, recalled, “The only source of music information
was a shortwave radio that I would use to listen to the BBC. In 1977 I heard
a new group – the Sex Pistols – and I remember telling Svin (Andrei Panov)
‘In England there are idiots just like us!’¹ Michael Kobs of the East German
band Planlos (meaning No Plan or Aimless) also recalls tuning into the BBC’s
World Service: “I listened to western radio in the 70s – mainly John Peel’s
Brygada Kryzys, LP, live recording, 1982. show. That was a new musical world. At some point I got a Clash poster, don’t
remember where from. Only then did I see pictures depicting punk.”² Sometimes,
1. 2. proto-punks in Eastern Europe pieced together their understanding from hatchet
Yevgeny in What About Michael “Pankow”
Tomorrow? An Oral Boehlke, interview by
jobs in the official press. Typically, punk was presented as a symptom of the
History of Russian Punk Bodo Mrozek, OstPunk!: degeneracy of “the rotting West” in state media.³ But Eastern European readers
(Portland, Oregon: too much future : Punk
Microcosm Publishing) in der DDR 1979–1989,
living under communist rule were well-versed in reading “against the grain”,
Alenka Pirman & KULA (Slovenian Ethnological and Anthropological Association), Taking
forthcoming. ed. Michael Boehlke i.e, reversing the claims of state propaganda or, as we’ll see, taking reports at their
(Berlin: Künstlerhaus
Care of Yourself is Detrimental to Your Health. A campaign, 2019. Design and diagrams Bethanien, 2005), p. 48.
word. Robert Brylewski, founder of Kryzys, an early punk rock outfit in Poland,
by Tomaž Perme. 3. recalled reading a report mocking British punks in a Warsaw daily. He decided
http://www.vladimir-kozlov.
com/Eng/Punk.html.
72 Accessed 15 February 2019. 73 CRACK UP – CRACK DOWN
 PUNKY SAMIZDAT DAVID CROWLEY

… the very late 1970s saw the first few signs of a new anti-aesthetics emerging
among scattered handfuls of young people in Moscow and Leningrad. They could
not be categorised as the by-now familiar bitniki, stilyagi, or Soviet hippies,
and did not share their admiration for Western culture. They wore their hair
short and preferred Soviet-brand clothes, which they wore proudly, in often
unusual ways: a stained old jacket with a tie on a bare chest; a naval shirt with
smart trousers a few sizes too small; a long coat with white pumps and a ladies’
fancy scarf. Some wore badges, various self-made accessories, safety pins or key
rings. The common denominator among such absurd variety was that, in the
eyes of the average citizen, they looked like idiots and their behaviour tended
to match their clown-like dress style. Loud-mouthed, grimacing and awkward-
moving, they celebrated all shades of teenage dysfunction. Demonstratively
ignoring the concerns and behavioural codes of respectable citizens, these young
people seemingly enjoyed being regarded and treated as imbeciles.⁷

The Raincoats, 1979.

Einstürzende Neubauten, 1985.

to adopt the chief object of ridicule – the safety pin worn as jewellery – and
went out into the city wearing fifteen of them. Encountering a man in a trench
coat, the tell-tale uniform of the ubek (secret policeman), he imagined his own
imminent arrest, only to find that his observer pulled open his collar to reveal
his own collection of punk pins.⁴
Originating in the West, punk was always a patchy signal in the Eastern
Bloc and Yugoslavia. Some settings had better reception than others: the young
had more opportunities to connect in Yugoslavia and Poland than the more
closed worlds of Czechoslovakia and the Soviet Union. The London post-punk Moscow punks, 1988. Stilyagi, Moscow mods of the late 1950s dancing the Twist.
feminist group The Raincoats played an early gig in Warsaw in 1978, for instance.
And when punk gestures were made, they were always acts of adaption in The Mukhomor (Toadstool) Group of youthful artists in the late 1970s, for
which sounds, images, and fashions with alien origins were given “local” forms. instance, might be understood as proto-punks in this way.⁸ They started their
Ella Kruglyanskaya, The Black Leather Jacket Incomplete knowledge stimulated a kind of heightened imagination too. After activities – actions, amateurish paintings, and improvised sound collages – in
for a charity auction held by Barneys and all, for citizens of the Eastern Bloc, punk and later new wave belonged to what the orbit of non-conformist artists Andrei Monastyrsky and Ilya Kabakov,
Christie’s, 2016.
Andrei Yurchak has called an “imaginary west … that [for Soviet citizens] was 7. 9.
but quickly rejected the subtle lyricism of Moscow Conceptualism in favour of
simultaneously knowable and unobtainable, tangible and abstract, mundane and Ivan Gololobov, Hilary See Matthew Jesse Jackson, more absurd and even brutal aesthetics that shared much in common with punk.
4. 6. Pilkington, and Yngvar B. The Experimental Group:
This account is given by Tannert writing under
exotic.”⁵ Reviewing the first wave of industrial bands in East Germany in 1985, Steinholt, Punk in Russia: Ilya Kabakov, Moscow
One action, Raasstrel (Execution, 1979), involved a mock execution of a volunteer
Raymond A. Patton in the pseudonym Britta Christoph Tannert, a young promoter and musician, claimed that having never Cultural Mutation from Conceptualism, Soviet drawn from the audience that had gathered in a forest to watch the Mukhomor’s
Punk Crisis: The Global Punk Lagerfeldt, “Coswig 1985” in the ‘Useless’ to the ‘Moronic’ Avantgardes (Chicago:
Rock Revolution (Oxford: David Crowley and Daniel
seen groups from the West like Einstürzende Neubauten and Test Department (London and New York: University of Chicago
artistic performance. Alluding to the Bol’shoj terror (Great Terror), the action
Oxford University Press, Muzyczuk, eds., Notes from perform “saved” his compatriots from “epigonism” and the “rust” of copying Routledge, 2014), p. 23. Press, 2010), pp. 213‒214. disturbed some of the audience, perhaps because of its literalism.⁹ Mukhomor’s
2018), p. 48. the Underground: Art and 8.
5. Alternative Music in Eastern
the “old metalworkers”.⁶ The Mukhomor group was
other works included Zolotoj disk (Golden Disk), a sound collage recorded
Alexei Yurchak, Everything Europe, 1968–1994 (Łódź: Soviet proto-punks, more isolated than their Polish, East German, created in 1978 by Sven in 1980‒1981, composed “from assorted tape recordings, from Little Richard
Was Forever, Until it Was Muzeum Sztuki, 2016), Gundlach, Konstantin
No More. The Last Soviet p. 388.
and Yugoslav counterparts, had little to go on and all the more to fill in. They Zvezdochetov, Alexey
to Soviet patriotic marches, Vivaldi symphonies to Central Asian folklore,
Generation (Princeton seemed more inclined to embrace punk as an attitude. Ivan Gololobov writes: Kamensky and Mironenko state anthems to recent pop hits, overlaid with their own wild performance
and Oxford: Princeton brothers Vladimir and
University Press, 2006), Sergey and operated for
p. 159. 74 ca. six years. 75 CRACK UP – CRACK DOWN
 PUNKY SAMIZDAT DAVID CROWLEY

of self-composed poems and short stories.”¹⁰ Copied on reel-to-reel tapes, it

circulated throughout the Soviet Union, becoming an underground “hit”, even
making money for the group according to one report.¹¹ The Mukhomor Group
also claimed to be The Beatles in a handmade book in 1982. Posing for the
camera in the streets, courtyards, and rooftops of Moscow, they created a photo
album which starts with the assertion, “We are two Beatles – Kostya and I”.
This is group member Sven Gundlakh’s own description:

At the beginning of the book The Beatles by The Mukhomor Group there was
still some sense of subject, but by the third page until the very end it is filled
with photographs of bums dancing and uneven lines of sound composition like
“Bdu, bda, bdla”, which seem to imitate scat singing.¹²

Occupying a space between enthusiasm and self-ridicule, The Beatles is an

Punk Problemi, Vol. 11, No. 10/11, edited by example of what Gundlakh called “mental pop art”, an attitude in which
Peter Mlakar, Ljubljana, 1983, RK ZSMS. “philosophy” is expressed in “completely idiotic and banal ideas”.¹³ And the
Cover photograph by Jane Štravs.
dissonance and biting humour of the “Golden Disk” was not only a dismissal
of the trite and often sentimental culture promoted by the Soviet state, but also
of the earnest and highbrow activities of non-conformist artists. With a deadpan
taste for imbecility, The Mukhomor Group was one stream of a new wave of
punk-like attitudes in Moscow in the early 1980s.

PUNK PROBLEMI
Messitsch, Nos. 4 (left) and 2 (right), Leipzig, September and July 1990.
The responses of the communist authorities to punk groupuscules was far from
consistent, even in the same country, and usually veered between suppression a “symptom [that] reveals an intrusion of the suppressed ‘truth’ of the most calm,
and co-option. In Yugoslavia in 1981, a compilation LP was issued under the title most normal everyday life” in Yugoslavia:¹⁵
Novi Punk Val 78–80, and Siouxsie and the Banshees were invited to play by the
Student Centre in Ljubljana. And yet this was the same year that the authorities Punk literally depicts the deprived vastness of the “normal”, and already
in the Socialist Republic of Slovenia sought to extinguish the subculture by this “liberates”: it introduces some alienating distance. This is why the
denouncing its “fascist” tendencies. In a campaign known as the Nazi-Punk sadomasochism, irrational violence, “anarchy”, etc, of punk are so emphasised.
Affair, an obscure band was prosecuted for racist lyrics, and a wave of arrests and Yet punk introduces this distance exactly as it re-enacts these elements, when
interrogations occupied the police for much of the autumn.¹⁴ Supporting the it “resurfaces” them.
state, major newspapers denounced punks in hysterical terms, in turn triggering
Novi Punk Val (New Punk Wave), 1981. attacks on the streets and expulsions from school. Intellectuals rallied in defence. East Germany (GDR) appears to have been a particularly repressive
Three “punk” issues of Problemi (Problems), an important philosophical journal environment, with the state operating a system of licenses to determine who
10. 13.
Artemy Troitsky, Tusovka: Cited by Jackson,
under the editorship of Mladen Dolar, were published between 1981 and 1983, could play music in public, and running informants to manage the emergent
Who’s Who in New Soviet The Experimental Group, for instance. Problemi identified closely with its subject, adopting the cut-and- punk scene from within. Following the official line, Stasi files described punks
Rock Culture (London: p. 215.
Omnibus, 1990), p. 30. 14.
paste Xerox aesthetics of fanzines, and reproducing the lyrics of many of the most 15. 16.
as being “of weak character”, “disoriented”, easily influenced and shaped by the
11. See Jones Irwin and openly critical bands including Pankrti (Bastards), as well as newspaper reports See Slavoj Žižek, See Juliane Brauer, “Clashes “Western enemy”, and as “degenerate” with a “lack of belief in socialist ideals.”¹⁶
See Andrew Solomon, Helena Motoh, Žižek “Introduction to Punk of Emotions: Punk Music,
The Irony Tower. Soviet and His Contemporaries:
of punk from around the world, and darkly dystopian comic strips. In the first of Problemi” in David Youth Subculture, and
Punk seems to have been viewed as more of a threat in the GDR than it was in
Artists in the Time of On the Emergence of the these three punk issues, the celebrated neo-Lacanian philosopher Slavoj Žižek Crowley and Daniel Authority in the GDR Poland or Hungary; punk fanzines were a rarity there, for instance. The historian
Glasnost (New York: Slovenian Lacan (London: Muzyczuk, eds., Notes (1978–1983)” in Juvenile
Knopf, 1991), p. 110. Bloomsbury, 2014), p. 31.
supplied an editorial reflecting on punk (written before the Nazi-Punk Affair). from the Underground: Delinquency, Modernity, and
Christian Schmidt has traced the first East German title to a pamphlet by
12. He describes punk not as an alien phenomenon imported from the West but as Art and Alternative the State, 38:4 (2012), p. 59. Jörg Löffler, printed in just three copies in Dresden in 1983, and produced on
Sven Gundlakh, “APTART. Music in Eastern Europe,
Pictures from an exhibition” 1968–1994 (Łódź: Muzeum
in A-ya 5 (1983), p. 14. 76 Sztuki, 2016), p. 412. 77 CRACK UP – CRACK DOWN
 PUNKY SAMIZDAT DAVID CROWLEY

a typewriter using carbon copying paper.¹⁷ One of the copies sent to the West
was intercepted, and Löffler was held on remand for three months. Another,
with the title Inside, was printed in 400 copies in Poland. It was confiscated and
destroyed by the customs authorities when its editor tried to bring it into East
Germany. Schmidt has only been able to identify two other titles produced in
the country (Alösa, printed by a punk congregation associated with an evangelical
East Berlin church as an “information sheet” between 1986‒1988, and Messitsch,
printed in 1987 in a Leipzig darkroom on photographic paper). To avoid the
Henryk Gajewski, Polish punk promoter. very real risk of being imprisoned for unauthorised publication, East German
punk writers had to be satisfied with sending their articles and images to West
Germany for publication in fanzines on the other side of the Wall.

Post Remont, Warsaw, 20 February 1981. Post, No. 6, Warsaw, 10 January 1981.
Published by Henryk Gajewski. Published by Henryk Gajewski.

In the People’s Republic of Poland, the chief promotor of punk was Henryk
‘Ada’ Dąbrowska, Radio Złote Kłosy, Warsaw, Gajewski, an artist, filmmaker, and curator who had once announced a visit of
October 1980. Andy Warhol to his Warsaw gallery – a notorious prank.¹⁸ Disdainful of the
influence of “dilettantes from the radio and discotheques” and the anaemic fare
offered by the state record labels, he called for DIY creativity: “Write a text, form
a melody, start a band, organise a concert, buy 100 cassettes and reproduce your
recording.”¹⁹ His appeal was heard, it seems. Some tens of punk fanzines were
created between 1979 and the end of the regime, sometimes recycling images and
Szmata project, illustration by reports from the Western music press, or slicing in material from the Polish press,
Piotr Kalon Sawicki. usually accompanied by a sardonic comment or an absurd image. Often surviving
for only one or two issues, fanzines like PUNK, Post, and Post Remont published
by Gajewski, Kanał Review by Andrzej ‘Amok’ Turczynowicz, Zjadacz Radia
17. 18. 19.
and Papier Białych Wulkanów by Jacek ‘Luter’ Lenartowicz, Organ by Tomasz
Christian Schmidt, Łukasz Ronduda, Sztuka Gajewski cited by Hornung, Stefan ‘Mikes’ Mikulski’s Szmata, as well as Radio Złote Kłosy by ‘Ada’
“Meanings of fanzines Polska lat 70. Awangarda Raymond A. Patton in
in the beginning of Punk Papier Białych Wulkanów (White Volcano Paper), Warsaw, 1980–1981, published by (Warsaw and Jelenia Punk Crisis: The Global
Dąbrowska were typically printed illicitly on duplicating machines, and latterly
in the GDR and FRG” Jacek ‘Luter’ Lenartowicz, the drummer of Tilt and Białe Wulkany (White Volcanos). Góra: Centrum Sztuki Punk Rock Revolution on photocopiers that were often in workplaces.
in Volume! [online], Współczesnej Zamek (Oxford: Oxford University
5:1 (2006). Accessed Ujazdowski, Polski Press, 2018), p. 47.
15 February 2019. 78 Western, 2009), p. 367. 79 CRACK UP – CRACK DOWN
 PUNKY SAMIZDAT DAVID CROWLEY

Gajewski’s call to action reflected not only his involvement in the networked to print in volume using offset machines and screen printing facilities. Gábor
democracy of Mail Art and his enthusiasm for punk, it also chimed with the rise Demszky and László Rajk of the AB Kiadó (AB Press) independent publishing
of independent media in Poland, which had grown in step with the rise of the house came from Hungary in 1980 to learn how to print in large volume to
anti-communist opposition.²⁰ By the end of the 1970s, an extensive network of improve on the “traditional” samizdat method of copying texts on a typewriter
independent publications – known as Drugi Obieg (Second Circulation) – was in charged with sandwiches of thin paper sheets and carbon copy paper. They
place in the People’s Republic, contesting the state’s grip on information. Works came back home equipped for screen printing, stencilling, the offset technique,
of fiction, historical studies, political philosophy and religious studies, as well as and a Polish speciality – the so-called ramka – which involves stretching stencil
newspapers, were printed and distributed in large numbers, entirely bypassing paper on a frame and impressing it by hand. Rajk also ran a “samizdat boutique”
censorship. Often printed on thin, pulpy paper, what these publications lacked in from his flat on Galamb utca in Budapest. Open every week, visitors could view
terms of design and print quality they made up for by affording thrilling access to independently published titles and order copies for collection on their return.
prohibited knowledge and ideas. When the independent Solidarity Trade Union
formed at the very end of the 1970s, the reach of independent media expanded
further: unofficial “radio” broadcasts, for instance, were played through the
loudspeakers of state factories. Even after Martial Law was declared in December GRAPHIC NOISE
1981 to suppress Solidarity (Solidarność ) and restore communist authority,
Mały Konspirator, Wrocław, 1983. A practical production quickly revived – with estimates of 200 underground newspapers Punk, it seems, ought to have had an affinity with the dissenting cultures that
guide on how to react when arrested. Cover being published in 1983, as well as practical guides on how to react when arrested had been in operation in most Eastern Bloc countries for a decade or more,
illustration by Zbigniew Wołek.
(Maly Konspirator), and even a couple of years later, a comic book version of even if none reached the scale of production of Poland around 1980. But along
George Orwell’s Animal Farm.²¹ with the new wave subculture that followed in its wake, punk displayed little
So well developed was independent publishing in the People’s Republic of enthusiasm for authority. And a Xeroxed fanzine or a bootleg tape would simply
Poland that samizdat publishers came from neighbouring countries to learn how seem to be a version of samizdat (unlicensed self-publishing) and magnitizdat
(recordings on tape, typically of live performances by poets and folk musicians).
Often, however, the anti-communist opposition cast a wary eye on punks,
distrustful of what they saw as their nihilistic and hedonistic attitudes. Others
saw in punk a tendency towards compromise and compliance. It lacked the
commitment of opposition. Writing under the pseudonym Drahomír Křehký
in Vokno, a Czechoslovak samizdat magazine, Paul Wilson contrasted the new
phenomenon of punk and the underground culture which had formed in the
early 1970s (in which he had played a part as a member of the underground
Vokno, No. 15, 1989. A Czechoslovak rock band Plastic People of the Universe). His long article was accompanied
samizdat magazine published by by a rogues’ gallery of portraits featuring Johnny Rotten and Sid Vicious of the
František Stárek.
Sex Pistols, as well as other London punks. Written in November 1977, the year
he was exiled from Czechoslovakia, Wilson was already well informed about
the ways that punk had become pop in the West:

The rejection of the values of the establishment is a common attitude

of both movements, but while a nicely wrapped rejection can become a
commodity in England, it becomes a crime in Czechoslovakia. The Prague
20. 21.
musical underground preceded punk by several years, [not because of ] any
See H. Gordon Czesław Bielecki, innate characteristics of Czech thought, but rather thanks to the draconian
Skilling, Samizdat and Jan Krzysztof Kelus and
an Independent Society in Urszula Sikorska, Mały
“normalisation” policy of Husák’s regime – the policy that forced everyone with
Central and Eastern Europe konspirator. poradnik really normal artistic expression to hide their existence in the existence of the
(Columbus: Ohio State dla dorosłych i młodzieży
University Press, 1989) and (Lublin: Wolne Dźwięki,
cracks and crevices of society. The result is that the aesthetic attitude of the
Friederike Kind-Kovács 1983); Folwark zwierzęcy underground is, in comparison, much more stubborn and interesting than the
and Jessie Labov, eds., (Według Orwella) edited
Samizdat, Tamizdat, and and illustrated by Maciek Folwark zwierzęcy, Komiks wg Orwella (Animal Farm. Comics After Orwell), punk attitude, which, no matter how intransigent, seems to always leave open
Beyond: Transnational Biały and Karol Blue samizdat comic book, 1985. a possibility to be devoured by a stronger wave. This is quite normal in the West,
Media During and After (Warsaw: ReKontra, 1985).
Socialism (New York:
Berghahn Books, 2013). 80 81 CRACK UP – CRACK DOWN
KRIWET, Text Dia, 1970. Installation view at
the 33rd Ljubljana Biennial of Graphic Arts,
2019.
 PUNKY SAMIZDAT DAVID CROWLEY

publishing the Kama Sutra and other practical sex guides, histories of jazz
music and Roksi, a long-running magazine which reported on rock music in the
U.S.S.R. and in the West. (First published in just five coverless copies in 1977,
each issue probably did not exceed twenty copies in its fifteen-year history.²⁵)
Punk zines displayed precisely the graphomaniac qualities which
Machovec rejected. Combining collaged, scrawled handwriting and a self-
consciously amateur appearance, these black and white publications were
generally as difficult to read as their counterparts in the West. Rational discourse
was eschewed in favour of absurd humour and raucous design. The first issue of
Papier Białych Wulkanów (White Volcano Paper), issued in Warsaw by Jacek ‘Luter’
Lenartowicz, the drummer of Tilt and Białe Wulkany (White Volcanos), was
introduced in 1980‒1981, with a question: “What exactly is a white volcano?”
The answer was given by Professor Lisol McWhite, a fictional expert in the
fictional science of White Volcano Therapy: “White is white, and the volcano is
simply a volcano?” Other pages included asemic writing and “cut-up” sentences
in the manner of William S. Burroughs. Such devices functioned, according to
Dick Hebdige, an early theorist of punk, as “noise”: promising communication,
they refused to deliver a “message”.²⁶
Honore Daumier, Gargantua, lithography, 1831. After François Rabelais’ humorous novel Poster for a Tilt concert at Remont, 1980. This refusal to make direct political statements was particularly striking
Gargantua and Pantagruel, which explored the excesses and toxicities of its day. during periods when the tension between state and society was high. Luxus,
a group with a darkly sardonic name, formed during a student strike at the
Art Academy in Wrocław, Poland, in 1982.²⁷ That year Poland was under martial
from today’s rebel becomes tomorrow’s manager, and, in the end, it does not have law, introduced by the authorities to put an end to the Solidarity Trade Union:
to be bad because it at least ensures that the official culture [in the West] is again a curfew operated, riot police suppressed protests and strikes, food disappeared
revived through self-serving injections of energy and inventiveness. In today’s from the shops, and letters and phone calls were monitored. The Wrocław
Czechoslovakia, this cannot happen, which is the main reason why the official group operated as a loose alliance that produced exhibitions by seemingly
Anna Uddenberg, Finger V, 2018. culture is dead.²² 25. 28.
organising trash; an occasional magazine created with the most primitive means;
Polly McMichael, “‘After “Rzeczywistość się performances featuring unskilled musicians; and non-camera movies. Luxus
all, you’re a rock and roll penetruje”, Wojciech
In his review of Czechoslovak underground publishing, Martin Machovec star (at least, that’s what Bockenheim’s interview
was, in effect, a kind of strategy to provide what could not be found anywhere.
was reluctant to grant “graphomaniac prattling, babbling rubbish” the status of they say)’: Roksi and the with Paweł Jarodzki in Speaking in the 1990s Paweł Jarodzki, one of the founders of the group, recalled:
Creation of the Soviet bruLion 16 (1991), pp. 74‒75,
samizdat. Underground printing – or perhaps, the risk of prosecution – carried Rock Musician” in Slavonic cited in Anna Mituś and
a kind of gravitas.²³ It was serious business. The publication of works of literature and East European Review Piotr Stasiowski, eds., … It was martial law, it might have continued for the next fifty years or
83:4 (2005), pp. 664 ‒684. Agresywna niewinność:
that had been prohibited (such as the novels of Orwell, Bulgakov, and Kafka, for 26. Historia grupy LUXUS
so for all we knew and perhaps I’d never get to go to America, never get
instance) and studies of historical episodes that the authorities would have rather Dick Hebdige, Subculture: (Wrocław: BWA Galerie a chance to be as successful as Mr. Warhol … or perhaps I don’t feel like it …
The Meaning of Style Sztuki Współczesnej, 2014),
left unexamined (such as the Katyn Massacre, the repression of the Hungarian (London and New p. 33.
I don’t know. Anyway, I live here and now, and it is here and now that I need
Uprising in 1956) was a way of righting wrongs. And publishing political York: Routledge, 2002), 29. to provide myself with … luxury. Everyone wants to be young, rich, have
pp. 99‒100. Ewa Ciepielewska cited
philosophy and religious tracts (the Jehovah’s Witnesses were particularly 27. by Anna Markowska,
nice girlfriends and lead a nice life in general, and that is something that you
busy underground printers) was a means by which the horizons of intellectual The group had a shifting “Laughter at War” in Ann need to achieve yourself. So we started an American magazine. American as
line-up over its history Murray, ed., Constructing
life could be elevated. But seriousness was not the defining characteristic of (1982 to 1995) but the the Memory of War in
a concept. The radio played shit, so we recorded Kaman and released those tapes,
samizdat. In fact, the term itself was coined in the Soviet Union as a parody of most active members Visual Culture since 1914: and played them back at home.²⁸
were Paweł Jarodzki The Eye on War (London
22. 24.
the acronyms given to state publishing houses (like Gosizdat and Gostransidat). (who gave its name), and New York: Routledge,
Drahomír Křehký, “Punk See Ann Komaromi, It also sounded not unlike a brand of popular Georgian wine (Sam-trest). Ewa Ciepielewska and 2018), pp. 81‒82. All of this set them apart from the authors of highly sombre and symbolic art
Rock” in Vokno 1 (1977), “The Material Existence of Bożena Grzyb-Jarodzka,
p. 43. Soviet Samizdat” in Slavic
Some samizdat scholars have been keen to emphasise its engagement with as well as Jerzy Kosałka,
produced in response to the military clamp-down, and crosses, saints, and other
23. Review, 63:3 (Autumn the carnivalesque, noting that Mikhail Bakhtin’s book on Francois Rabelais Marek Czechowski, Artur martyrological symbols prevailed. They rejected the tidy distinction between state
Martin Machovec, 2004), pp. 597‒618. Gołacki, Małgorzata
“The Types and Functions
and the carnivalesque was published in this underground format in mid 1960s.²⁴ Plata, Stanisław Sielicki,
and opposition, one recalling, “We were independent and careless because we did
of Samizdat Publications in And samizdat publishers in the Soviet Union took pleasure seriously too, Jacek Jankowski, Szymon not care” – a sentiment which could have been borrowed from The Ramones.²⁹
Czechoslovakia, 1948‒1989” Lubiński, Andrzej Jarodzki,
in Poetics Today 30:1 (Spring and Krzysztof Kłosowicz
2009), p. 6. 84 (aka Kaman). 85 CRACK UP – CRACK DOWN
 PUNKY SAMIZDAT DAVID CROWLEY

Luxus formed brief alliances with musicians in the city, including Miki
Mausoleum and Zad Gumowego Wieloryba. Their handmade zine – printed
on pages intended for army newspapers or stolen blocks of perforated computer
paper, and featuring stencils, linocuts, and rubdown and hand lettering – was
also a group effort. Brimming with colour and exuberant sloganeering in support
of the army, pornography, or American cinema, the artzine Luxus approached
the curfews, censorship, and shortages under martial law and the tasks of
opposition with irreverence.

Luxus. The International Political ’n Fucking magazine, No. 4, undated.

Laszlo Rajk, Kulczhelyzet (Key Position), unpublished samizdat, 1983. The line drawings
When it first appeared, punk was usually characterised by its critics as a sign depict Andre Adolphe Eugene Disderi’s photograph of dead communards and Jean Hippolyte
Flandrin’s portrait of Napolean III.
of degeneration and corruption. The state security services in Czechoslovakia,
for instance, launched a campaign against punks with the code name Odpad
(Waste).³⁰ Parodying early press reports in Slovenia, Žižek wrote: “Lyrics ooze László Rajk, founder of the Samizdat Boutique in Budapest, brought these
with nihilistic, self-destructive protest, charged with cheap provocations: instead themes together when he proposed that AB Kiadó, the independent publisher
the youth should focus their critical energy in a more constructive direction.” of Václav Havel and Milan Kundera’s works in Hungary, as well as serious
This image of suppuration was well observed. Punks frequently embraced studies into minority rights, published his comic book Kulczhelyzet (Key
abjection, with bands adopting names like Gnile Duše (Rotten Souls) in Position, 1983).³² The history of the improvement of the WC is told in a series
Yugoslavia, and a Czech fanzine called Sracka (Shit). One of the earliest punk of line drawings which combine technical designs with the contours of famous
songs in the Soviet Union invited society to “shit on my face”.³¹ Declarations of images depicting the battles and class struggles of the 19th-century. They
self-abasement, images of waste and decay were common in punk in the West include dead communards in their coffins in Andre Adolphe Eugene Disderi’s
too, but they carried all the more force in the East in societies which claimed famous photograph (1871); Jean-Francois Millet’s weary Man with a Hoe
to be based on a “scientific”, progressive ideology. If punk was, as Žižek declared, (1862) and Jean Hippolyte Flandrin’s portrait of Napoleon III (1861). Istvan
30. 31. a social symptom, then its interest in waste and entropy might best be understood Bibó’s semi-psychoanalytical study of the failure of democracy and what he
Miroslav Vaněk, Ostrůvky Egor Letov “Nasrat’ 32.
svobody: kulturní a občanské na moe litso” (“Shit
as another expression of the stagnation (zastoia in Russian) which is so often Gábor Demszky,
called “elmaradottság” (backwardness) in the region, A kelet-európai kisállamok
aktivity mladé generace v on my face”) from used to tag the Brezhnev period. László Rajk, and Edit nyomorúsága (The Misery of Small Eastern European States, 1946) forms a typed
80. letech v Československu the album Totalitarizm‘ Sasvári, Földalatti vonalak
(Praha: Ústav pro soudobé (Totalitarianism), 1987. (Budapest: Jelenkor Kiadó,
dějiny AV ČR, 2002), p. 193. 86 2000). 87 CRACK UP – CRACK DOWN
 PUNKY SAMIZDAT DAVID CROWLEY

backdrop to Rajk’s images. Evading a clear message, Rajk seems to ask: What and topless woman playing with a large five-pointed star, the primary symbol
is progress? Revolutionary politics or flushing toilets? Lacking the noisiness of Titoism, under the title “Revolution is a Whore”. Many of the authors of
of punk, it nevertheless entertained some of its ironic coprophilia. In the end, this material in Problemi were associated with FV 112/15, a theatre group
Kulczhelyzet was not published, failing to find approval with the AB Kiadó established in 1980 by Neven Korda and Zemira Alajbegović. Abandoning the
editorial board. stage, FV 112/15 evolved rapidly into something like a multimedia platform for
the production of alternative forms of culture, much in the DIY-spirit of punk.
It released records and cassettes through its music label, and in 1982 it established
a regular club night in Ljubljana, Disko FV; four members (Dario Seraval,
Aldo Ivančić, Korda, and Alajbegović) formed Borghesia, a band which achieved
international success on the electronic music scene in the late 1980s. FV 112/15
also organised Magnus, a festival of gay and lesbian films in 1984. According
to Korda, the group was not interested in shifting mainstream cultural practices
and values, instead it staked out a zone where the conventions of Yugoslav life
did not seem to apply, though happily drawing resources from state-funded
institutions when needed (for instance, borrowing the cameras owned by the
local student centre).³³

Giorgi Xaniashvili, Untitled, 2019. From the Print Portfolio, The 33rd Ljubljana Biennial
of Graphic Arts, 2019.

Viks, No. 2, entitled “Homosexuality and Martine Gutierrez, Martine Part I–IX, 2012–2016 (still).
QUEERING SOCIALISM Culture”, issued on the opening day of
the Magnus Film Festival, 1984.
One of the defining features of the alternative culture that formed in Ljubljana
Punk and new wave often channelled sexual “deviance” too, sometimes in in the early 1980s were the short films and videos – akin to pop videos on the
the deployment of the illicit iconography of sexual fetishism or by perverting then new MTV channel – made by FV members like Korda and Alajbegović.
33.
gender conventions. The third punk issue of Problemi in Slovenia (1983) featured Neven Korda, “FV and the
Barbara Borčić notes that much of the material that the FV artists snatched
illustrations of erotic asphyxiation (a translation of an article from the Italian ‘Third Scene’ 1980–1990” for their video projects featured “recognisable political personalities, rituals
in Liljana Stepančič and
magazine, Fridigaire); the sadomaschostic lyrics of tracks by Borghesia, an early Breda Škrjanec, eds.,
and manifestations including Tito’s funeral, or popular Yugoslav music stars”,
electronic music group; and a set of photographs by Miki Stojković of a man FV Alternativa osemdesetih as well as “shots from pornographic movies recorded from private Italian
(Ljubljana: Mednarodni
grafični likovni center,
88 2008), p. 312. 89 CRACK UP – CRACK DOWN
 DAVID CROWLEY

television programmes.”³⁴ Early video works like Korda’s Obnova (Renewal, 6,

1983) – compiled from clips emphasising the industrial rhythms of sex in
pornography – and Zemira Alajbegović’s Tereza (4, 1983) – in which TV
footage of socialist ceremonies is intercut with popular melodramas – could
be filed under the voguish category of “appropriation art”. But another way
of understanding this material is to see it as a queering of Yugoslav socialism.
FV videos and performances sought to unsettle the normative effects of state
media, sometimes by eroticising its heroes and sacred symbols. Recalling her
activities in the orbit of FV at the time (particularly the video works made
with Šmid), Gržinić writes: “queer positions – every form of non-heterosexual
positioning – we understood, exclusively and entirely, as a political stance.
This queerness – and the word queer means literally ‘not right / not quite’ –
demands, of us and of the viewer, a rethinking of the conditions of life, work,
Vladislav Mamyshev-Monroe, Life of great and possibilities of resistance.”³⁵
Monroes, 1996. The last expression of what might be called “punky samizdat” in the Soviet
Union also embraced queerness. Piratskoe Televidenie (Pirate TV) was a video
platform formed by young artists and musicians in Leningrad at the end of the
1980s. With new-found access to VCRs and video cameras, the artists Yuris
Lesnik, Timur Novikov, and Vladimir Mamyshev-Monroe made improvised
and uncensored “programmes” that had the liveliness and busy energy of MTV,
if not its production values. Their programmes were self-published, copied on
domestic VCR machines and shared in their networks. Assuming a feminine
appearance (in make-up and wearing a dress fashioned from glossy black LPs),
Mamyshev-Monroe hosted two series, Culture News and The Deaths of Famous
People (an inversion of a well-known series of books in the U.S.S.R., Lives of
Famous People). In one, Mamyshev (Marilyn) appears, flirting naked with the
video camera in the bath and singing to a figure in a JFK mask: “Miss Monroe,
I am paralysed by your beauty”, he says. “Me too”, replies the dead film star.
Mamyshev-Monroe’s first appearances had been as an on-stage
model with the Pop Mechanics orchestra, a seemingly chaotic ensemble
Vladislav Mamyshev-Monroe, Gorbachev, that was formed by piano virtuoso Sergey Kuryokhin in Leningrad in 1984.
from the Politburo series, 1990. Mamyshev-Monroe would appear as a vision of Marilyn in the midst of raucous
performances featuring groups of punk and new wave musicians and jazz
34. 35. players, as well as military bands and even live animals. Rejecting the fascination
Barbara Borčić, “Video Marina Gržinić,
Art from Conceptualism “The Video, Film, and
with crossdressing pop stars who were starting to appear in Soviet culture (the
to Postmodernism” Interactive Multimedia “quagmire of transvestism”), Mamyshev-Monroe started a career as an artist by
in Dubravka Djurić, Art of Marina Gržinić and
ed., Impossible Histories: Aina Šmid, 1982–2008”
queering the icons of history, politics, and popular culture. Mamyshev-Monroe
Historical Avant-gardes, in Marina Gržinić, Tanja assumed a hybrid persona combining Adolf Hitler and Marilyn-Monroe,
Neo-avant-gardes, Velagić, eds., The Video Art
and Post-avant-gardes of Marina Gržinić and Aina
dissolving “both of them in myself, this appearing as the model of the new man.”
in Yugoslavia, 1918–1991 Šmid, trans. Rawley Grau “Through all my physical and mental mechanism to embody mankind in all its
(Boston: MIT press, 2003), (Vienna: Erhard Löcker
p. 514. GesmbH, 2008), p. 48.
variety,” he claimed to “experience all these destinies myself, take on myself all
36. these countless sins, neutralise these with countless good deeds, eliminate sexual,
Vladislav Mamyshev
(Monroe-Hitler),
national, social differences and remain myself in this singular variety.”³⁶
Dozie Kanu, Chair [ iii ] (Crack Rock Beige), “Where the Heck am I? Not just content with raising icons from the past, Mamyshev-Monroe
Where are my things?”
2018 (front). XIYADIE, Sorting sweet potatoes
in Viktor Mazin, ed.,
also embraced the hero of the day, Mikhail Gorbachev. As General Secretary
(Dad, don’t yell, we’re in the cellar sorting
sweet potatoes), 2019 (back). Installation
Kabinet: An Anthology of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, Gorbachev had launched the
(St. Petersburg: Ina-press
view at the 33rd Ljubljana Biennial of and Amsterdam: Stedelijk
Graphic Arts, 2019. Museum, 1997), p. 110. 91 CRACK UP – CRACK DOWN
 PUNKY SAMIZDAT

policies of glasnost (openness) and perestroika (restructuring) in 1986, introducing

an unprecedented degree of permissiveness and cultural autonomy in a country
that was better known for censorship and control. Ten standard photographic
portraits of members of the current Soviet Politbureau – including that of
Gorbachev – were “made-over” by Mamyshev-Monroe with lipstick, jewellery,
and elaborate graphic hairstyles, and they hung in Evgeny Kozlov’s studio in
Leningrad in 1990. There, they attracted the attention of the international press,
looking for easily conveyed symbols of artistic freedom in a fast-changing Soviet
Union. In this way, a queered image of a feminine Gorbachev appeared around

BEING OUT
the world. In fact, Mamyshev-Monroe’s Politbureau portraits joined a large body
of Western reports breathlessly describing the fast changes in the Soviet Union
then underway. The eccentric Soviet punk and new wave style often featured in

OF TUNE
these articles, and provided a spectacular contrast with the drabness of Soviet
streets and homes. Moreover, the punk phenomenon, already a decade old,
Dozie Kanu, Chair [ xiv ] (Imobilidade was immediately legible to Western readers. It seems an odd paradox of history
M’aider), 2019. that the reassurance of familiarity could be provided by an aesthetic that had
been created to stir controversy.

URŠULA
THE WITCH
Uršula is a witch rumoured to live in authority to the conductor of the carnival “sawing of the witch”, where participants FAVOURITE SONGS OF MY NEIGHBOURS,
a cave in Slivnica, a hill overlooking
the town of Cerknica.
for this time. Uršula is invited to the festival
every year in order for residents to bring
cut up a large papier mâché sculpture of
Uršula. Residents costumed as witches,
ABUSERS, AND DESPOTS
She is said to create storms in an end to winter and usher in the springtime. Butalci, and other masked satirical
the valley below, and is the mother of The parade begins with the so-called figures then parade the streets. AUGUSTIN MAURS
the Slivnica Mountain witches. Lake
Cerknica is an “intermittent lake”, as Being Out of Tune is a parodic recital based
it drains during the autumn through on songs that have been used, abused, and
its bed of porous karst limestone. The co-opted by ruling powers or performed by
vanishing lake gave rise to folkloric political leaders. Playing with the notions of
speculation that the phenomenon was consonance and dissonance, the piece deals
due to supernatural forces. In the 17th- with musical interconnections among popular,
century, the Slovenian historian and populist, and totalitarian forces. The songs
polymath Baron Janez Vajkard Valvasor are understood as found objects, set in a
(1641–1693) wrote about the Slivnica cabaret show where the act of singing has
Mountain witches in describing the social been problematised.
and natural history of Lake Cerknica
and the surrounding region. Uršula is
also a central figure at the annual Pust
celebrations (the Slovenian carnival that
extends from Shrove Sunday to Ash
Wednesday) in Cerknica. During these
celebrations, the town changes its name
to Butale, after the fictional town in Fran Augustin Maurs, Being out of Tune:
Milčinski’s collection of satirical stories, Favourite songs of my neighbours, abusers
Butalci, and is said to transfer municipal and despots, concert part of the public
programme of the 33rd Ljubljana Biennial of
Graphic Arts, 2019.

92 93 CRACK UP – CRACK DOWN

 BEING OUT OF TUNE AUGUSTIN MAURS

ÖŇE, ÖŇE DIŇE ÖŇE JAN IKAW

WATANYM TÜRKMENISTANYM
Ikaw ang bigay ng maykapal
Hormatly Prezidentimiz Gurbanguly Tugon sa aking dasal
Berdimuhamedow Upang sa lahat ng panahon
Öňe, öňe diňe öňe jan Watanym Bawat pagkakataon
Türkmenistanym! Ang ibigin ko’y ikaw
Ikaw ang tanglaw sa ‘king mundo
Parahatlyk-ýürek baydagy Kabiyak nitong puso ko
Älem-jahan mähir mukamy Wala ni kahati mang saglit
Türkmenistan bahar baýramy Na sa yo’y maipapalit
Türkmenistan dostluk mekany. Ngayo’t kailanma’y ikaw
Ang lahat ng aking galaw
Öňe, öňe diňe öňe jan Watanym Ang sanhi ay ikaw
Türkmenistanym Kung may bukas mang tinatanaw
Dahil may isang ikaw
Ajap eýýam, ajap çagym bar, Kulang ang magpakailan pa man
Ýalkym saçýan şamçyragym bar Upang bawat sandali ay
Hak sylamyş Beyik Gerçegiň Upang muli’t muli ay
Gahryman halkymyz bar. Ang mahalin ay ikaw

SETLIST
Meglio ‘na Canzone Öňe, öňe diňe öňe jan Watanym Ikaw Awara Hoon My Way Blueberry Hill
(Silvio Berlusconi and Mariano Apicella, Türkmenistanym (Pilita Corrales, Philippines) (Raj Kapoor, India) (Frank Sinatra, U.S.) (Fats Domino, U.S.)
Italy) (Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow, Performed by Rodrigo Duterte in a duet Reportedly Mao Zedong’s favourite song. The song that Slobodan Milošević repeatedly Performed by Vladimir Putin during a
Frequently performed by Silvio Berlusconi. Turkmenistan) with Pilita Corrales at Donald Trump’s listened to while detained for war crimes in charity event in Saint Petersburg, 2010.
Composed and performed by the president of request during the ASEAN Summit in Blutrote Rosen The Hague.
Turkmenistan, Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow. Manila, 2017. (Austin Egen, Germany) Сулико (Suliko)
A choir of 4,166 people broke a world record A favourite song of Adolf Hitler. (old Georgian folk song)
by singing this song in a choreographed show Joseph Stalin’s favourite song.
in Turkmenistan, 2015.

94 95 CRACK UP – CRACK DOWN

 BEING OUT OF TUNE

СУЛИКО (SULIKO)

Я искал могилу милой,

обошёл я все края.
И рыдал слезой горючей:
“Где ты, милая моя?”

Я в кустах увидел розу

что светилась, как заря.
И спросил её с волненьем:
“Ты ли милая моя?”

Нежно засвистала пташка,

И спросил я соловья:
“Молвы, звонкая пичужка:
Ты желанная моя?”
ABSURDMYSTIC
Соловей склонив головку,
На кустах своих свистал,
Словно ласково ответил:
“Угадал ты – это я”

METAHAVEN

The linguist and philologist Victor Klemperer In January, on the 5th of April,
once noted that words can be “like tiny doses In dry weather – with knee-high puddles.
of arsenic” that are “swallowed unnoticed”. On a brick street – made of
Klemperer, who was Jewish, hinted at his wooden planks
own, entirely unwitting, adoption of Nazi Walked a tall man – of short height
jargon in his everyday language, apparent Curly with no hair – thin like a barrel.
from terms such as “extermination” and With no children – only a son and
“work deployment”, and collectives such a daughter.
as “the Russian” or “the Jew”. Satire should Writes a letter home:
strive to question the very world that is made I’m healthy – in a hospital,
* 1. out of such names and terms. Fed up – and hungry,
This text is a reworked Дело было в январе, Our encounter with anonymous Russian All come visit me – I don’t want
fragment and summary пятого апреля,
children’s verses going under the loose to see you.1
from Metahaven’s Сухо было на дворе –
lecture “Sleep Walks лужи по колено,
genre name of перевертыши (perevertyshi,
the Street: from memes По кирпичной мостовой, turnarounds) – initially through a collection Our friend, the artist and theorist Alex
to Vvedensky” at the сделанной из досок, of Russian children’s poetry – happened in Anikina, wrote:
Les 80 Chasseurs Brother Louie Crack Up – Crack Down Шел высокий гражданин rollercoaster days and nights between the
(old French song) (Pochonbo Electronic Ensemble, Symposium in Ljubljana. низенького роста,
sickness and death of a parent, and the It is definitely a genre in itself.
Sung by Jean-Marie Le Pen at a political Democratic People’s Republic of Korea) It is part of Metahaven’s Кучерявый, без волос;
forthcoming book on худенький, как бочка.
early youth and blossoming of a child. These You would make them up on the
gathering in France, 2012. Reportedly Kim Jong-un’s favourite song.
art, cinema, analogy, and У него детишек нет, self-negating rhymes, full of contradictions, go usually. One that was popular
abstraction. With thanks только сын да дочка. seemed to us the one thing to make perfect in my childhood was:
Mei Hua (Plum Flower) Is That All There Is? to Lesia Prokopenko, Пишет он домой письмо: sense of our world:
(Teresa Teng, Taiwan) (Peggy Lee, U.S.) Eugene Ostashevsky, Жив здоров – лежу в
По реке плывет кирпич,
A beloved song of Chiang Kai-shek. A favourite song of President Donald and Alex Anikina. больнице,
Сыт по горло – есть хочу,
Деревянный как стекло,
J. Trump.
Приходите все родные – Ну и пусть себе плывет,
я вас видеть не хочу. Нам не нужен пенопласт.
Translated from the
Russian by Alex Anikina,
96 January 2017. 97 CRACK UP – CRACK DOWN
 ABSURDMYSTIC

She continued: poetic imagery; he “materialised” metaphor,

revealing the role that words play in assuming
It takes well to translation. It’s so a (false) correspondence between language
expressive because the emphasis falls and the world. In The Gray Notebook,
very strongly on the last syllable, but a concise body of texts that shed light on
at the same time there is no rhyme. his artistic and philosophical methodology,
I would translate it: Vvedensky wrote about naming processes:

Down the river floats a brick, Let us think about simple things. We
Wooden like a sheet of glass, say: tomorrow, today, evening. Thursday,
Let it do its own thing, month, year, during the course of the
We don’t need styrofoam.2 week. We count the hours in a day. We
point to their increase. Earlier, we saw
Further down the path of this self-negational only half the day, now we have noticed
“absurdism”, sharing common mystic ties, the movement within the whole of the
lies the writing of Alexander Vvedensky. day. But when the next day comes, we
Vvedensky was a founding member of begin counting the hours anew.
OBERIU, the “Union for Real Art”, a collective
of poets that was active in Leningrad in the Then, he continues:
1920s and 1930s, meeting its sorrowful end in
Alexander Vvedensky (1904–1941). the early 1940s. The designation “absurdism” … in the case of time, its addition
is somewhat of a Western misnomer, at least differs from all other addition. You can’t
when it comes to OBERIU, writes Eugene compare three months you lived through
Ostashevsky – a poet, scholar, and the main to three trees that have grown again.
translator of Vvedensky’s poetry into the The trees are right there, their leaves
English language. Indeed, what was at work glimmer dimly. Of months you can’t say
in OBERIU and Vvedensky was something the same with confidence. The names of
more than simply disorganising the making minutes, seconds, hours, days, weeks,
of meaning. and months distract us from even our
Alexander Vvedensky developed a superficial understanding of time. All
rich poetic language that undermined the these names are analogous either to EMILY APTER
operative capacity of rhetorical expression. objects, or to concepts and measures of
For example, Vvedensky did not merely space. As a result, a week gone by lies Can one say anything serious about memes? Are earworms, loony tunes,
use metaphor to invoke open-ended before us like a killed deer.3
pet videos, or those random weird things you can’t get out of your head anything
more than just fodder for empty hours? Or self-medicating forms of humour
that take you through the trauma of daily headlines? Memes correspond to
what Charles Sanders Peirce called “general predicates of thought”. They build
strength through repetition and recognition and call attention to themselves
through techniques of likeness, indication, guideposting, exclamation, attention-
forcing, thrown-togetherness, and the status conditions of badge or shibboleth.¹
Memes also illustrate the thrust of the drives, manifest in the obsessive-
Looney Tunes opening title as a template for compulsive desire to engineer repeat “hits” to consciousness. Peter Szendy
the creation of memes, 2019. describes feeling “haunted, obsessed to the point of queasiness, possessed until
you just can’t take it any more by one of those tunes that come to you just like
that, one of those songs you hear by chance … one of those hits that, from that
moment on, refuses to let you go. … Nothing is to be done: A kind of virus
has taken a hold of you … And you have caught what some have called an
earworm [a translation of the German Ohrwurm, used to describe the “musical
itch” of the brain].”²
2. 3. 1. 2. Richard Dawkins, who famously coined the neologism “meme” in his
Alex Anikina, email to Alexander Vvedensky, Charles Sanders Peirce, Peter Szendy, Hits:
author, January 2017. An Invitation for Me Metahaven, Eurasia (Questions on Happiness), 2018 (still). Citation from Alexander Vvedensky, “What is a Sign?” (1894). Philosophy in the Jukebox,
1976 classic The Selfish Gene, treated its survival as analogous to natural selection
to Think, selected and “Snow Lies”, 1930, translated from the Russian by Eugene Ostashevsky. https://www.marxists.org/ trans. Will Bishop (New in biological evolution.
translated by Eugene reference/subject/ York: Fordham University
Ostashevsky (New York: philosophy/works/us/ Press, 2012), pp. 2‒3.
NYRB Poets, 2013), p. 74. 98 peirce1.htm. 99 CRACK UP – CRACK DOWN
 MICROPOLITICS OF MEMES EMILY APTER

There is a principle of economy both in the recollection of perceived things and

in the recognition of familiar objects, and it is based on what I shall call codes of
G
NOTHIINGN
recognition. These codes list certain features of the object as the most meaningful
for purposes of recollection or future communication: for example, I recognize
IS A S IT IS a zebra from a distance without noting the exact shape of the head or the

UNLESPSRETED relation between legs and body. It is enough that I recognize two pertinent
characteristics – four-leggedness and stripes.⁵
INTER SIGN Charlton Heston, five-term president of the
AS A National Rifle Association. As objects of gestalt learning and iconotropy (the appropriation and reworking
of like images), memes are construed by navigating diverse fields and
subdisciplines: evolutionary biology, phenomenology, cognitive psychology,
5. 11. semiotics, technologies of neuroimaging, epi- and ontogenetics.⁶ With respect
Umberto Eco, “Critique of Wikipedia gives this
the Image” in Victor Burgin overview of “Pepe the
to epigenetics, I refer to the way in which the meme, like the interpretive
ed., Thinking Photography Frog’s” life as a far-right molecule of RNA, reproduces a memory-self through mnemonic traces that
(London and Basingstoke: internet meme: “During
Macmillan, 1982), p. 33. the 2016 United States
pass along inherited trauma. With respect to ontogenetics, I refer to how memes
Originally published in presidential election the function as operators that hybridise modes of existence, genres and medial
Cinemantics 1 (1970). meme was connected
6. to Donald Trump’s
forms: jokes, puns, religious icons, transitional objects that soothe and heal.
I borrow the term campaign. In October Underscoring this therapeutic capacity, the Urban Dictionary notes: “Memes are
“iconotropy” from 2015,Trump retweeted
This is what the debunked “Pizzagate” Charles Sanders Peirce, father of semiosis.
Michael Camille’s a Pepe representation of
a lifestyle and art used by teens and adults who are willing to actually live a life
conspiracy theory looks like. The theory The Gothic Idol: Ideology himself, associated with that doesn’t include depression. Technically the main reason half the world has
went viral during the 2016 U.S. presidential and Image-Making in a video called “You Can’t
I think that a new kind of replicator has recently emerged on this very planet. Medieval Art (Cambridge: Stump the Trump (Vol. 4)”.
not committed to die.”⁷
election cycle.
It is staring us in the face. It is still in its infancy, still drifting clumsily about Cambridge University Later in the election, Roger In their antidepressant function, memes are salves for solitary souls.
Press, 1989), p. 240. Stone and Donald Trump
in its primeval soup, but already it is achieving evolutionary change at a rate 7. Jr. posted a parody movie
They are community-builders, connecting solo agents to social networks
that leaves the old gene panting far behind. … “Mimeme” comes from a suitable “Memes”, Urban poster of The Expendables and political causes. They engender an implicit trust among the “users” who
Dictionary. https://www. on Twitter and Instagram
Greek root, but I want a monosyllable that sounds a bit like ‘gene.’ I hope my urbandictionary.com/ titled “The Deplorables”,
co-produce and distribute them, and, by doing so, model a kind of sharing
classicist friends will forgive me if I abbreviate mimeme to meme. If it is any define.php?term=Memes a play on Hillary Clinton’s economy dubbed “platform cooperativism” by Trebor Scholz.⁸ And yet, because
Accessed 12 June 2019. controversial phrase “basket
consolation, it could alternatively be thought of as being related to ‘memory,’ 8. of deplorables”, which
of their predication on impersonal intimacy, memes shift the ground of the
or to the French word même. It should be pronounced to rhyme with ‘cream.’ ³ Trebor Scholz, Platform included Pepe’s face among political, from an ethics of direct responsibility to an ethics of limited liability
Cooperativism: Challenging those of members of the
the Corporate Sharing Trump family and other
and indirect consequence in moral action. The emotionally reactive, remotely-
Though Dawkins would underscore that memes multiply through non-genetic Environment (New York: figures popular among responsible meme user profiles the political actor as triumphalist raptor or
Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung, the alt-right. Also during
reproduction and eventually refute the idea (proposed by N.K. Humphrey) 2016). https://www. the election, various news
rogue agent. Not surprisingly, memes enjoy a particularly robust life on the
that they are actually existing living structures residing in the brain, he certainly academia.edu/22572831/ organisations reported political right, their ever-evolving morphologies in step with the latest strategic
An_Introduction_to_ associations of the character
encouraged the conceptual rhyme scheme of meme and gene; it appears Platform_Cooperativism with white nationalism
political innovations in gerrymandering, voter suppression, “cancellation” on
throughout the book like a running joke. 9. and the alt-right. In social media, and “computational propaganda” whose objectives include damage
I borrow this term from May 2016, Olivia Nuzzi
Situated midway between Peirce’s “predicates of thought” and Dawkins’s the title of an essay of The Daily Beast wrote
to the opponent’s reputational brand (“Pizzagate”), and industrial-strength
“selfish gene” there is René Thom’s distinction between saillance (a disruptive collection, Computational that there was “an actual production of triggering tags (“fetal heartbeat”, MAGA, the NRA Charlton
Propaganda: Political campaign to reclaim
flash or jolt of sensory stimulus) and pregnance (animal cues ensuring Parties, Politicians and Pepe from normies”,
Heston meme: “I’ll give you my gun when you pry it from my cold, dead hands”).⁹
propagation and species survival). Forged at a particular juncture of French Political Manipulation on and that “turning Pepe Fully weaponised as technologies of harassment and hate-mongering within
Social Media, eds. Samuel into a white nationalist
Pepe the Frog got busted, 2019. phenomenology and life science in the early 1940s, Thom’s speculations on the C. Woolley and Philip N. icon” was an explicit goal
a general “cryptoeconomy of affect”,¹⁰ memes are omnipresent warriors in the
biological origins of human symbolism yielded the proposition that predication Howard (Oxford: Oxford of some on the alt-right. culture / flame wars (to wit, the flashpoint of “Pepe the Frog” after the internet
University Press, 2019). In September 2016, an
rests on l’investissement d’une forme saillante par une prégnance, roughly, “the 10. article published on Hillary
meme’s appropriation by the alt-right as ideological mascot for white supremacy
vesting of a salient form by an expectant substance.”⁴ The formula is useful Uriah Marc Todoroff, Clinton’s campaign website and white nationalism).¹¹
interview with described Pepe as “a symbol
for understanding, from the perspective of ethology and “semio-physics”, the Brian Massumi and associated with white
Of course the right does not own the meme-tool. The “aggressive”
conditions by which a meme “takes” or becomes a holding-object of the brain. Erin Manning, supremacy” and denounced character of the meme has been mobilised across the political spectrum
“A Cryptoeconomy of Trump’s campaign for
3. 4.
Umberto Eco, for his part, would associate this kind of predictive processing Affect”, The New Inquiry, its supposed promotion
(including left on left attacks), channelling the epidemiological analogy
Richard Dawkins, René Thom, Apologie with the workings of the “recognition seme” based on “codes of recognition”. 14 May 2018. https:// of the meme.” https:// to an “aggressive virus” and all that comes with it: imaginaries of disease,
The Selfish Gene (Oxford: du logos (Paris: Hachette, thenewinquiry.com/ en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
Oxford University Press, 1940), p. 1. a-cryptoeconomy-of-affect/ Pepe_the_Frog. Accessed
1976, 2006), p. 249. 100 Accessed 20 May 2019. 17 May 2019. 101 CRACK UP – CRACK DOWN
 MICROPOLITICS OF MEMES EMILY APTER

contamination, toxicity, and demographic incursion. One could venture that

the episteme of the meme (the epistememe, if you will), is essentially pandemic
and bellicose.¹² The association of memes with viral consciousness and
pack-herd mass violence underscores their volatility as a political medium;
their susceptibility to appropriation and self-sabotage as in cases – like those
found in the comics of R. Crumb – in which “the satire of racist bigotry is
indistinguishable from bigotry itself.”¹³ This negative capability of memes
notwithstanding, it is important to acknowledge their historic contribution
as rallying points to activism and protest politics (think of ACT-UP’s
Silence=Death graphic used by ACT-UP “Silence=Death” logo, or more recently, #BlackLivesMatter, a meme in itself
(AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power), 1987. that also built a series of movement memes out of Eric Garner’s phrase
“I Can’t Breathe” and Trayvon Martin’s hoodie; or the pro-choice movement’s
pink X-emblazoned sign and slogan #SexStrike: “If Our Choices Are Denied
So Are Yours.”

#SEXSTRIKE, a viral movement for women’s Black Lives Matter rally in Union Square, New York, – in solidarity with protests in Baltimore,
reproductive rights proposed by actress 2015.
12. 13.
Alyssa Milano.
See Angela Nagle, Kill All Tanner Tafelski, “The
Normies: the online culture Knotty Legacy of Weirdo,
wars from Tumblr and R. Crumb’s Underground
‘ You should train an eye on the mark on this Gorbachev’s head,
4chan to the alt-right and Comix Magazine” in to see if it changes shape.’
Trump (Washington: Zero Hyperallergic, 14 June 2019.
Books, 2017). To make the 14.
‘Changes shape? It’s always been there.’
point about the escalation See Tom McCarthy ‘ You know this?’
of meme warfare Nagle and Elvia Wilke,
asks us to compare the “Just Fucking Weird”,
‘What, you think it recently appeared?’
age of innocence when 28 March 2019, at ‘ You know this? It’s always been there?’
the Obama campaign the Haus der Kulturen
circulated the HOPE der Welt, Berlin.
‘It’s a birthmark,’ Brian said.
meme by artist Shepard https://www.hkw.de/ ‘Excuse me but that’s the official biography. I’ll tell you what I think. I think if
Fairey, with the “irreverent en/programm/projekte/
mainstream-baffling veranstaltung/
I had a sensitive government job I would be photographing Gorbachev from
meme culture during p_149683.php. Accessed outer space every minute of the day that he’s not wearing a hat to check the shape
the last race, in which 10 May 2019.
the Bernie’s Dank Meme 15.
of the birthmark if it’s changing. Because it’s Latvia right now. But it could be
Stash Facebook page and DeLillo’s parody of Siberia in the morning, where they’re emptying out their jails.’ ¹⁶
The Donald subreddit paranoid over-reading
defined the tone of the was the harbinger of
Amanda Ross-Ho, Untitled Crisis Actor The psychedelic, sexual, and satirical stylings
race for a young and newly post-online “crazy” and
politicized generation, 4chan bullying. The players (hurts as much as you can imagine, of cartoonist R. Crumb.
with the mainstream range, as Angela Nagle’s although you do not have to be crying
media desperately trying snapshot indicates, across to feel this), 2019.
to catch up with a Mencius Moldbug’s
subcultural in-joke style “The Cathedral”,
to suit two emergent Nick Land’s “Dark Memes assume weird, hybrid forms both in and beyond platform politics. In
anti-establishment waves Enlightenment”, and
of the right and left. “Peter Theil’s idea to
aesthetics and creative practice they figure prominently in “the New Weird”,
Writers like Manuel create a separate state off a genre between fantasy and horror in speculative fiction associated with writers
Castells and numerous the coast of the US – and
commentators in The Wired rightest elite applications
like H.P. Lovecraft, China Miéville and Tom McCarthy. Weird objects, according
told us of the coming of to transhumanism.” Angela to McCarthy, are protean and formless. In his 2015 novel Satin Island, an oil-spill
a networked society, in Nagle, Kill All Normies,
which old hierarchical op. cit., p. 17.
becomes an example of the Weird: a dark substance, a primeval ooze, a terrestrial
models of business and ink, it presents a script written by a nonhuman (the Earth) that remains
culture would be replaced
by the wisdom of crowds,
mystifyingly illegible.¹⁴ Mikhail Gorbachev’s birthmark, sometimes referred to
the swarm, the hive mind, as a “port-wine stain”, exerts much the same fascination. It appears as a meme
citizen journalism and
user-generated content.
that emblematises the atmosphere of fin-de-Cold War “crazy” in Don DeLillo’s Gorbachev’s “birthmark island” is an obscure Russian destination and the latest holiday
They got their wish, but it’s 1997 novel Underworld:¹⁵ 16. phenomenon known as the “shapecation”.
not quite the utopian vision Don DeLillo, Underworld
they were hoping for.” (New York: Scribner, 1997),
pp. 8‒9. 102 p. 181. 103 CRACK UP – CRACK DOWN
 MICROPOLITICS OF MEMES EMILY APTER

Flash forward to the present and you realise how this obsession has metastasized.
A headline from 2019 reads, “Tourists head to ‘Gorbachev birthmark’
archipelago”. The article explains: “An obscure Russian destination is the latest
in a new holiday phenomenon known as the ‘shapecation’.” The reference is to
Darak Aprel in northeast Russia off the Siberian coast. Tourists requesting to
see “the birthmark islands” eventually prompted Russian tour operators to make
it a destination spot. Here we have a triple-punch meme: the birthmark itself,
“birthmark tourism”, and a news item that is stranger than fiction.
A meme popular with U.S. soldiers during Gorbachev’s birthmark, like the oil-spill, is a pictogram or “crypto-
the Second World War. Servicemen drew the concept” belonging to a larger crypto-currency of the mind. Jean Laplanche
figure on walls wherever they were stationed.
coined “crypto-concept” to designate that which “goes astray” between material
and subjective reality, fact and fantasy.¹⁷ It is what concepts lean on, are propped
up by (like a subliminal subfloor), and remain oblivious of even as they quote
and repeat them. One of Slavoj Žižek’s “old joke[s] from Socialist times about
a Yugoslav politician on a visit to Germany” says it best: “When his train passes
a city, he asks his guide: ‘What city is this?’ The guide replies: ‘Baden-Baden’.
The politician snaps back: ‘I’m not an idiot – you don’t have to tell me twice!”¹⁸
What’s memic here is not only the repetition-effect of “Baden-Baden” or the
fact that it is already a “Žižek joke” meme, but also the “I’m not an idiot” idiocy,
with its affirmation of insistent obtuseness. Roland Barthes identified obtuseness
(l’obtus) with “third meaning”, using the example of the shower of gold raining
The ever-popular meme cat Tardar Sauce (aka Grumpy Cat).

19.
Roland Barthes, Example 1: down on the Tsar’s head in Einstein’s film Ivan the Terrible. Here, the historical
“Le troisième sens”, Warrior 1: Do you know
L’obvie et l’obtus (Paris: da wae?
symbolism of the gold is easy enough to decode, but there is something extra
Seuil, 1982), p. 46. Anime girl: What? that remains harder to unravel; an “erratic, obstinate” factor, something “trivial,
20. Warrior 2: SHE DOES
For a fairly complete NOT KNOW DA WAE
futile, false, pastiche.”¹⁹ Third meaning, Barthes specified, is third-order mimesis;
seminar on the genesis SPIT ON HER SPIT MY “meme-etic” inasmuch as it is an accessory to the copy of the referential motif.
of the Ugandan Knuckle BROTHAS
meme, see: https:// Warrior 3: Give no mercy,
Crypto-conceptuality and obtuseness are identifying traits of memes,
www.youtube.com/watch? for this false queen is a poser” no matter the packaging they come in: acronyms, logos, GIFs, captchas, emojis,
v=hVFTD-QZwMo https://www.
The Urban Dictionary urbandictionary.com/
random phrases, aphorisms, tunes, kinky or bad fashion, “crazy shit”, and
resumes its history define.php?term= tags: “Kilroy Was Here”, “Frodo Lives”, “Know da wae”,²⁰ “Hamster Dance”,
as follows: “Possibly Do%20you%20know
the January 2018 %20da%20wae. Accessed
“Scumbag Steve”, “Ermagerd”, “Alex from Target”, “Red Slime”, and “Grumpy
Meme of the Month, 17 June 2019. Cat”. It is this obtuseness – this ignorance of why they become memes – that
‘Do you know da wae’ has
taken the world by storm.
comes into focus when trying to fathom what gives them lift-off. Why do
Many brave, Ugandan certain examples of weak messaging, or random categories start to “trend”?
Warriors formed by a
group of Knuckles, which
Even witty artist memes give off some aura of bafflement about the fact of
is a Sonic character, follow their becoming memes. Nina Katchadourian, for instance, claims that she could
around people on VRChat,
asking if they know the
never have anticipated that her series Lavatory Portraits in the Flemish Style
way. They find queens to would go viral. Memes, then, are already born in scare-quotes, citing their own
follow, and if they find
a false queen, they make
obtuseness, their indifference to the sufficient cause of their reproducibility, their
spit sounds. If they find a status as cognitive perplex. It is this queer aspect of memes that may account,
real queen, they click their
tongues to show that they
at least in part, for their prominence in feminist, queer, and artistic practice.
are the queen’s followers. Pre-internet, feminist artist Mary Kelly created a leather jacket meme of female
17. 18. This random craze is funny
Jean Laplanche, “The Slavoj Žižek, Žižek’s Jokes Nina Katchadourian, Lavatory Self-Portrait in the Flemish Style # 6, # 19, # 1, # 3, # 8, and # 4, because of how random
masochism in her project Interim, Lutz Bacher memed Jane Fonda’s weirdness,
So-Called ‘Death Drive’: (Cambridge, MA: MIT from Seat Assignment, 2010–ongoing (clockwise from top left). it is, and many people do and Jenny Holzer fabricated a feminist self-defence meme, building off Marshall
A Sexual Drive”, British Press, 2014), p. 12. not seem to laugh at this,
Journal of Psychotherapy 20:4 usually people who are
(2004), p. 458. 104 not true meme artists. 105 CRACK UP – CRACK DOWN
 MICROPOLITICS OF MEMES EMILY APTER

The writers Divya Dwivedi and Shaj Mohan have analysed the Modi meme from
this perspective in their article “The Hoax in the Cave”:

An oversized man (56 inches to be precise) in a cave swaddled in saffron robes

posing for the cameras in a stance of catatonic freeze. Frozen men in mountain
caves are consecrated with divinity in the myths of the subcontinent. This image,
as with all images, captures the mode of capturing as well; that is the mode in
which an image is generated is registered in the very image.²⁴

Invitation to the feminist internet culture

exhibition By Any Memes Necessary at
Junior High Gallery, Los Angeles, curated
by Mo Johnson (ka5sh).

21. 23.
Mo Johnson, “By Any As Liam Gillick notes,
Memes Necessary: This the end of the last
Art Exhibit Takes Feminist millennium ushered
Internet Culture from URL in a host of memes as
to IRL” in Bust, newsletter euphemistic fixers, “new
(May / June 2019) https:// Ancient-Greek sounding
Jenny Holzer, The Survival Series: Men don’t protect …, 2006.
bust.com/arts/19045- names” appearing “in
meme-art-exhibit.html. ambient ambivalent New age meditation pioneered by Modi, which involves a 5-star cave with plenty photo
Accessed 17 June 2019. spaces of exchange as
22. a replacement for more
McLuhan’s notion that “the medium is the message”. Post-internet, queer and opportunities for the folks back home and online.
Slavs and Tatars, difficult and directly feminist artists have embraced the meme as medium, as the recent exhibit
“More Phemes” in contestable activities or
Wripped Scripped scandals: Altria, Aga,
By Any Memes Necessary attests.²¹ “Capturing the mode of capturing” is close to what I previously ascribed to
(Berlin: Hatje Cantz Areva, Avaya, Aviva, In their one-linerism,²² in their association with a production the meme. Dwivedi and Mohan seize on this feature, along with the “camera
Verlag, 2018), p. 7. Capitalia, Centrica,
Consignia, and Dexia were
process that is “back office” (largely hidden from view, and in that respect the after camera” cumulative effect that compounds the “hypophysical cultic power
joined by Acambis, Acordis, antithesis of assembly politics), in their reliance on the short attention span of the object in the hands of the magician-gangster.”
Altadis, Aventis, Elementis,
Enodis, and Invensys.
and the ephemeral, virtual environments of Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram
By 2001, Arthur Anderson (themselves meme trademarks), and in their complicity with the art of the stupid This particular image of the large man in the cave comes in a series of
Accounting had become
Accenture and Philip
joke (think Žižek’s Jokes, a book whose philosophy-nerd subtitle, Did you hear images. In one of them, a cameraman crouching obsequiously at the feet of
Morris had rebranded itself the one about Hegel and negation? alerts readers to the lameness of philosophy the overbearing saffron subject and pointing at the face making the pose was
as Altria – all in an attempt
to reflect the potential of
and prepares them for a joke at their own expense), memes lend themselves caught by another camera which was focused on the same subject from behind.
new global markets and to being dismissed as frivolous bad puns or excoriated as units of capitalist The latter image which reveals the making of the image is important. It shows
unforeseen opportunities,
carried by new names that
branding and rebranding.²³ It seems incontestable that internet memes flow out that a hoax in politics takes many men to invent and sustain, for politics is
could be associated with of a commercially-driven economy of social media, and that they increasingly the responsibility of the many.
visual affects spinning
free from concrete
populate what used to be quaintly known as “the public sphere” with a profit- Zhanna Kadyrova, Market, 2019 (detail).
associations.” Liam Gillick, harvesting avalanche of prompts, screengrabs, tweets, conspiracy theories, Dissecting the logic of the parts and wholes that upholds the “hoaxiness” of
“We Lived and Thought
Like Pigs: Gilles Chatelet’s
deepfake videos, and hoaxes. Memes are willing agents of the trollfarm, helped 24.
the hoax, and the distributed responsibility of its production values, Dwivedi
Devastating Prescience”. along by the political brands of Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin, Matteo Salvini, Divya Dwivedi and Shaj and Mohan leave us with lingering questions about how power is localised and
https://www.e-flux.com/ Mohan, “The Hoax in
journal/100/268837/
Jair Bolsonaro, Geert Wilders, Benjamin Netanyahu, Victor Orbán, Marine the Cave”, The Wire online.
disseminated in the vast field of micropolitics, and how, despite (or because of )
we-lived-and-thought- Le Pen, Jörg Haider, Nigel Farage, Narendra Modi … https://thewire.in/politics/ their hoaxiness, memes become ascendant and sovereign even if only for a brief
like-pigs-gilles-chtelet- narendra-modi-cave-
s-devastating-prescience/ meditation. Accessed
Accessed 17 June 2019. 106 14 June 2019. 107 CRACK UP – CRACK DOWN
Nicole Wermers, Givers & Takers #3 and #2,
2016 (left). Nicole Wermers, Double Sand
Table, 2007–2018 (back). Marlie Mul, Puddle
(Shallow Match), 2014 (front). Installation
view at the 33rd Ljubljana Biennial of
Graphic Arts, 2019.
 30.
MICROPOLITICS OF MEMES Slavs and Tatars, lascivious group of Polish
EMILY APTER
“Transvestite officials (The caption reads:
Transliteration: The Case “Andrzej Duda and gender-
time: “Is this man the whole of the hoax? Is it the robe? Is it the stone idols of Uyghur versus Atatürk”, geriatric colleagues at the
board. She expresses alarm at the sight of a tricolour cockade on the summit.
who are legal persons in the juridical system? Is it the media? Is it in our myths Blogpost LEAP 38, 100th anniversary of Polish Three “sharks” – the prominent politicians Sheridan, Fox, and Priestly (all
2 June 2016. “To unravel Independence, 10 January
which are continuous with our present? Is it our histories?” The Modi “Man in the twisted nexus of 2018”). Throughout,
supporters of the French Revolution) – chase the boat, adding peril to its passage
the Cave” meme, ginned up by viral circuits of “millions of followers”, illustrates politics, affect, and society memes are created out through the strait. The picture bears the caption, “The Vessel of the Constitution
at the heart of alphabet of historic icons and
the way in which memes have emerged as the political technology du jour. politics, we need a full political brand trademarks
steered clear of the Rock of Democracy and the Whirlpool of Arbitrary Power”.
There is, though, something in the obtuseness of memes along with the unstable arsenal of nose-, throat-, with the implicit (if not This caricature is didactic and hardly resembles the modern meme yet, in a
ear-, lip- and tongue express) intent to enhance
conditions of political literacy that often makes them backfire on dictators. twisters.” http://www. political literacy. Culled
prototypical way, it “phemes” the political in ways that prepare the ground for
Dwivedi and Mohan’s exposé of the Modi hoax itself went viral. One could say leapleapleap.com/2016/06/ from the detritus of “meming” the political. Peirce gave the technical definition of a “pheme” as
transvestite-transliteration- empires and revolutions,
that politically speaking, meme-ology derails the authoritarian political brand as the-case-of-uyghur-versus- these new memes –
a sign that stands in for a whole sentence, but one could say that in the grander
it moves, in aleatory fashion, into remote byways of audience, into greater powers ataturk/. Accessed 17 June which spell out the scheme of internet micropolitics, “pheming the political” points to an emergent
2019. micropolitics of “Eurasia”
of “we”. It comes to resemble a certain form of comedy that, as Lauren Berlant 31. while decomposing its
“meme-caricature-satire” nexus, itself qualified by the art collective Slavs and
and Sianne Ngai suggest, induces the kind of epistemological turbulence that To appreciate the constitutive clichés – stir Tatars as “the twisted nexus of politics, affect, and society at the heart of alphabet
morpheme as unit of up subterranean resources
structures of governmentality are at pains to contain or curtail: political caricature and in the historical memory
politics.”³⁰ This alphabet politics relies on the memic (technology-enabled)
source of “more memes” archive. As we are potential of transliteration;³¹ whose morphemes consist of historical scripts,
we might look to Slavs and visually marched through
Comedy isn’t just an anxiogenic tableau of objects disrupted by status shifting, Tatars’ homonymic play the Ottoman Empire, the
cartographic shapes, folk art, religious icons, stamps, flags, banners, billboards,
collapse and persistence, the disruption by difference, or a veering between the on themes and phonemes Eastern Bloc, the Russian posters, portraits, publicity shots, book illustrations, adverts, cover art, political
in the section “More steppes, the Balkans, the
tiny and the large. Nor is it just a field of narrative expectation punctuated by Phemes” in their book Iranian Revolution, and
decrees, and much more.³²
Honoré Daumier, Les poires (The Pears),
published in La Caricature, 1831. The juicy
the surprise of laughter or vertiginous enjoyment. It is also epistemologically Wripped Scripped. The book the Polish Solidarity Media theorists continue to offer optimistic prognoses of the progressive
presents a catalogue of movement, there is a
fruit bears resemblance to the portly visage troubling, drawing insecure boundaries as though it were possible to secure translatable icons, many crack-up of geopolitical
political potential of meme politics. Sasha Costanza-Chock coined the expression
of King Louis-Philippe. confidence about object ontology or the value of an ‘us’ versus all its others. recording the impact of and regional blandishments “transmedia organizing” with reference to the way in which “social movements
successive waves of imperial about bipolar axes of
Political cartoons, religious iconoclasm, matters of the risible are sometimes conquest, regime change, power (the “axis of evil”),
are becoming transmedia hubs, where new visions of society are encoded into
ordinary and, in some places, matters of life and death. … Comedy helps us test and superpositions of East versus West, secular / digital texts by movement participants, then shared, aggregated, remixed and
25. 28. religion and language over non-secular dichotomies,
Lauren Berlant and Sianne E.H. Gombrich and Ernst
or figure out what it means to say ‘us.’ … What lines we desire or can bear.²⁵ the variegated territories of hard lines of distinction
circulated ever more widely across platforms.” For Costanza-Chock, “despite
Ngai, eds., “Comedy Has Kris, “The Principles of Eurasia (Islamic, Christian among capitalist, socialist,
Issues” in Critical Inquiry Caricature”, British Journal Orthodox, Persian, and communist ideologies,
43:2 (Winter, 2017), p. 233. of Medical Psychology, 17
Mobilised as a comic medium, memes test the conceptual boundaries of Ottoman, French, Russian, and economies and
26. (1938), pp. 319‒342. https:// existential belonging and political community, and critically reboot the venerable Chinese …). It opens binary political thinking
In Memes to Movements: gombricharchive.files. with an Arcimboldo-style tout court. See: Slavs and
How the World’s Most Viral wordpress.com/2011/05/
tradition of political satire for an era of micropolitics.²⁶ Though they can blur composition of Adam, Tatars, “More Phemes”
Media is Changing Social showdoc85.pdf. Accessed the outlines of political programme by fusing the narcissism of “individual users” the original man. His hair in Wripped Scripped (Berlin:
Protest and Power (Boston: 17 June 2019. The authors parting, nose-line, and Hatje Cantz Verlag, 2018),
Beacon Press, 2019), Xiao situate the art of caricature
with outwardly directed expressions of targeted political rage, memes make symmetrical moustachio pp. 7 and 14.
Mina writes: “Hashtags and in a Freudian field of mind political history legible and micropolitically re-programmable, in the sense of form a system of face- 32.
memes created in a context play, sensory stimulus, letters merged with the Hamja Ahsan’s project
of social change often serve dream-construction and
Mark Fisher’s oft-quoted affirmation in Capitalist Realism: “The tiniest event Arabic alphabet, spelling Shy Radicals: The
as micronarratives. Stop affective play, noting can tear a hole in the grey curtain of reaction which has marked the horizons out the phrase “generosity Antisystemic Politics of
Kony. Uganda is not Spain. their methodological of God” fazl-i haqq; Islam the Militant Introvert
Chen Guangcheng will debt to Freud in drawing
of possibility under capitalist realism. From a situation in which nothing can written over Christianity. satirises the nexus of
defeat Pandaman. Trayvon on psychology as “the happen, suddenly anything is possible again.”²⁷ In a second iteration state government and
Martin faced systemic science of the integration (minus spectacles and hair) states of affect (shyness)
racism. Hoodies are of sensation, perception
At their best, memes breathe new life into the art of political caricature the image is captioned, as through a meme-
powerful. Through satire and desire.” whose history, as E.H. Gombrich and Ernst Kris elaborated in their 1938 if parodying educational friendly appropriation
and repetition, social media 29. copy, “The eyes, nose of authorising political
users are able to shape Ibid. The authors interpret
landmark article “The Principles of Caricature”, traces back to the end of the and mustache spell ‘Ali.’” documents: articles of
and define a narrative, the effect of the “Pear 16th-century when the mock-portraits of the Caraccis and the writing about Adam’s visage mirrors national foundation, acts
and through intentional King” caricature through bisected worlds and this of parliament, declarations
overproduction, they the Freudian lens of
ritratti caricchi (meaning “caricature” or “charge”) spawned a genre of grotesque bi- motif is humorously of rights, and so on. Under
start arriving at narratives transformation and comic likeness.²⁸ Satire, akin to caricature, but arguably less tied down to exploited to plot serial the proclamation “We,
that have the potential condensation. The psychic likenesses among disparate the Peoples of Aspergistan”
to resonate more broadly.” apparatus of “primary
physiognomic “tabs of identity”, attained its heyday in the aftermath of the political phenomena: a body of legislation
p. 75. process” becomes ascendant, French Revolution and the July Revolution (which occasioned Philippon’s wildly bisexual icons (Saint is put forth outlawing
27. putting conscious logic Wilgefortis in drag), “the global system of
Mark Fisher, Capitalist out of action (as in a
popular caricature of the constitutional monarch Louis-Philippe as “the Pear Eastern Europe’s attacks Extrovert-Suprematism”
Realism. Is There No dream or the working King”).²⁹ Consider a typical James Gillray caricature from 1793 featuring Prime on Western affirmations of and decreeing a code of
Alternative? (England: of wit). The caricaturist nonbinary sexuality, schizo- conduct based on Lao
Zero Books, 2009). capitalises on this effect,
Minister William Pitt, at a moment of Britain’s maximal fear of revolutionary analytic objects (a pair of Tzu’s dictum “the quieter
turning it consciously contagion. Pitt steers a small boat named “The Constitution” with Britannia on bisected Courrèges glasses), you become, the more you James Gillray, Britannia between Scylla and Charybdis, 1793.
into a “grammar of form” and cringeworthy images are able to hear.” If there is
that eventually culminates of women gymnasts doing explicitly memic content
in Mannerist style. 110 the splits in front of a here, it is found in the → 111 CRACK UP – CRACK DOWN
 MICROPOLITICS OF MEMES EMILY APTER

what Arne de Boever calls “plastic sovereignty” that retains “sovereignty’s positive
accomplishments.”³⁵ These include the skills of the professional organiser; non-
vertical axes of agency; autopoeic transformation over and against ‘neoliberal
flexibility”, and a “new experience of language.”³⁶ Pushing further, one could
say that satirical memes – in all their obtuseness – enable us to re-learn: they
become part of a re-education plan in reading (and changing) politics. By way
of example, consider Silvia Kolbowski’s Trump-David Bowie meme (captioned
“Ground Control to Major Trump”), in which we obtain a screen-capture of the
psychic shape of power. The mind-meld of these iconic figures, one a reckless
oligarch, the other a revered pop idol, produces a disturbing emblem of rage and
desire. It morphs according to the welter of what is at hand, including the drives
and affects floating up from the unconscious. Kolbowski intimates that we get
the politicians we meme for. What, she queries, “if Trump were actually himself
Silvia Kolbowski, Ground Control to Major a phantasm projected by his ‘base,’ rather than his base being an inherently evil
Trump, 2018. group to which he plays? What if he is an effect – a hologram – of their rage?”³⁷
Whether we approach memes as holograms of partisan affect or forms of satire
that undercut authoritarian rule, one thing seems clear: as a crypto-currency of
Flaka Haliti, Is it you, Joe? (Hangover), 2017. Slavs and Tatars, Make Mongolia Great Again, 2016. micropolitics, satirical memes offer instruction in the becoming-historical of
35. 37.
Arne de Boever, Plastic Silvia Kolbowski, “Ground
what Gombrich and Kris called a “grammar of form”.³⁸ Memic caricature has
digital inequality, the praxis of critical digital media literacy can produce subjects Sovereignties: Agamben Control to Major Trump”, the capacity to stigmatise its targeted subject, but it also traces the outlines of
and the Politics of Aesthetics Silviakolbowskiblog,
able to fully participate in transmedia organizing.”³³ Citing this passage, Xiao (Edinburgh: Edinburgh 7 May 2018. https://
the abuse of power, etching its occurrence on historical memory, transmitting
Mina waxes hopefully: “Social change memes take their place in the long line University Press, 2016), silviakolbowskiblog. it epigenetically as historical form and idea. As Gombrich and Kris noted
p. 23. com/2018/05/07/ground-
of activist art and culture – from street theater to graffiti – which aim to disrupt 36. control-to-major-trump/
(and it is impossible at the present pass not to have Trump in mind): “If the
and challenge narratives in the public space. … Memes help us envision another Ibid., p. 28. Accessed 17 June 2019. caricature fits the victim really is transformed in our eyes. We learn through
38.
world, a practice known as prefigurative politics …”³⁴ The word “prefigurative” E.H. Gombrich and
the artist to see him as a caricature. He is not only mocked or unmasked,
takes us back to René Thom’s suggestive construct of pregnance – with its Ernst Kris, “The Principles but actually changed. He carries the caricature with him through his life and
of Caricature”, op. cit.
connotations of expectancy, pregnancy, and (extrapolating here), predictive 39.
even through history.”³⁹
processing that produces mutational hylomorphism minus the politically Ibid.
33.
prescriptive hand and Sasha Costanza-Chock,
fore-ordained. I would concur in recognising memes as a currency of political
body language diagrams Out of the Shadows, Into the morphogenesis that harbour the capacity to alter political landscapes at the level
coded as “the new Streets! (Cambridge, MA:
lexicon of democracy.” MIT Press, 2014), p. 195,
of the micro-physics of power, but would caution against reading too much
hope into their “platform cooperativism”, their enhanced technology of political
We read: “All democratic
decisions and motions
as cited by Xiao Mina, in
Memes to Movements. How
BUTALCI
are to be negotiated via the World’s Most Viral Media
messaging, or their renewal of graffiti and street art. I would look instead to
a series of hand and is Changing Social Protest their potential as a medium of alphabet politics reliant on the raw material and Butalci are humorous folk characters dullards who bicker over small-town
body gestures to arrive and Power, op. cit., p. 76.
at a consensus. Whilst 34.
skill sets of political transliteration and grounded in satire. The art of political created by Fran Milčinski (1867–1932), disputes and are forever in competition
appearing in his satirical short stories. with residents from the neighbouring
previous non-hierarchical Xiao Mina, Memes to satire depends on political literacies attuned to the fine grain of diplomatic and Milčinski worked for most of his life as village of Tepanje. They are said to “lack
social movements had Movements. How the
experimented with moving World’s Most Viral Media is
parliamentary manoeuvring, espionage, the geopolitical stakes of the Great a lawyer and judge for a juvenile court. for nothing, only sense.” Milčinski’s short
beyond the language of Changing Social Protest and Game, the foibles and indiscretions of political actors, backroom scandals and This material inspired his later fictional stories have been made into children’s
applause and booing with Power, op. cit., pp. 76‒77.
what we call ‘wiggly hands’
scams, informal politics and information-trafficking, and infrastructures of work, which he began writing after the books, plays, and feature in carnival
birth of his children. His satirical folk tales celebrations throughout Slovenia. Through
(also known by them distributed responsibility that leave a significant though often barely perceptible were first published in 1917 in The Brigand intelligent satire and astute witticisms,
as ‘up twinkles’ or ‘spirit
fingers’), the Shy Radicals
cognitive imprint on the “what happens” of the political everyday. This mysterious Mataj and other Slovene Tales, and later Milčinski crafted celebrated stories that
movement nevertheless “what happens” is co-extensive with the obtuseness of all memes, which is to say posthumously collected in a volume serve as timeless and cautionary tales
identify ‘wiggly hands’
as representing a serious
with their crypto-conceptual propping, leaning and guideposting in the unseen entitled Butalci in 1949. Milčinski created about the consequences of ignorance,
the Butalci as residents of the fictional miscommunication, and in-fighting.
democratic deficit.” spheres of political influence. town of Butale, satirised as bumbling
See: Hamja Ahsan, Shy
Radicals: The Antisystemic
Overtly satirical memes abridge past and future political technologies
Politics of the Militant and help recover a sense of politics as métier, as professional praxis, as a form of
Introvert (London: Book
Works 2019), pp. 14, 39‒40
respectively. 112 113 CRACK UP – CRACK DOWN
Honza Zamojski, The Gathering
and The Meeting, 2019. Installation
view at the 33rd Ljubljana Biennial
of Graphic Arts, 2019.
 IMAGE SOURCES

All installation views of the 33rd Ljubljana p. 23 pp. 38–40 p. 60 p. 80 p. 101

Biennial of Graphic Arts are photographed – courtesy: Tala Madani and Pilar Corrias, – Eduard Fuchs, Die Weiberherrschaft in – youtube.com – Czesław Bielecki, Jan Krzysztof Kelus – twitter.com
by Jaka Babnik. MGLC archive. London the Geschichte der Menschheit (Women – Angelos Baš, ed., Slovensko ljudsko izročilo: and Urszula Sikorska, Mały Konspirator p. 102
– politika.rs Domination in the History of Humanity), pregled etnologije Slovencev (Cankarjeva (Wrocław: Agencja Informacyjna – forestdweller18285.blogspot.com
p. 5 – sutori.com Vol. 3 (Munich: Albert Langen, 1913). založba, 1980). Photo: Niko Kuret, 26. 9. Solidarności Walczącej, 1983; reprinted – MGLC archive, courtesy: Amanda Ross-Ho
– MGLC archive, courtesy: Lin May Saeed, p. 24 p. 41 1954, Bukovci 113, Puppeteer Franc Šmigoc, from: Warsaw: CDN, 1983). and Mary Mary, Glasgow
Jacky Strenz Frankfurt am Main, – MGLC archive, courtesy: the Top Lista – wikimedia.org farmer, shoemaker and musician, with the – Folwark zwierzęcy, Komiks wg Orwella p. 103
Nicolas Krupp, Basel Nadrealista cast and creators p. 42 puppets known as “lilek”. Archive of the (Animal Farm. Comics After Orwell). – wikimedia.org
– Studio Tatuażu Manta, pinterest.ca p. 25 – courtesy: Hamja Ahsan Institute of Slovenian Ethnology SRC SASA. (Warsaw: Gilosz & Azyl [Słowo], 1985). – ventmil.com
p. 6 – MGLC archive, courtesy: Lawrence Abu p. 43 Courtesy: ISE SRC SASA. p. 81 – wikimedia.org
– MGLC archive, courtesy: Cevdet Erek and Hamdan – third edition 2019, 11.3 × 17.5, 168 pages, p. 62 – vons.cz/vokno-en – avax.news
AKINCI, Amsterdam pp. 26–27 softcover, published by Book Works, – Toufigh Satirical Journal, 9 April, 1953 pp. 82–83 p. 104
– UNICEF, I dream of peace, (New York: – MGLC archive, courtesy: Endre Tot London, in 2017 as part of Common – Toufigh Satirical Journal, 22 August, 1962 – MGLC archive, courtesy: KRIWET and – wikimedia.org
HarperCollins Publishers, Inc., 1994) p. 28 Objectives, courtesy: Hamja Ahsan p. 63 BQ Berlin – courtesy: Nina Katchadourian,
p. 7 – MGLC archive, courtesy: Honza Zamojski, p. 44 – Ahangar, 1 April 1979 p. 84 Catharine Clark Gallery, San Francisco,
– MGLC archive Drei, Cologne – MGLC archive, photo: Urška Boljkovac, – Ahangar, 2 April 1979 – courtesy: Anna Uddenberg and and Pace Gallery, New York.
p. 8 p. 29 courtesy: Hamja Ahsan p. 64 Kraupa-Tuskany Zeidler, Berlin p. 105
– MGLC archive, photo: Urška Boljkovac – courtesy: Comedy Central p. 45 – Ahangar, 13 July 1979 – wikimedia.org – wallpaperzen.org
– mutualart.com – Fran Levstik, Martin Krpan (Ljubljana: – courtesy: Clarissa Thieme – Ahangar, 6 May 1979 p. 85 p. 106
p. 9 Mladinska knjiga, 2017). p. 46 p. 65 – database.unearthingthemusic.eu – bust.com
– courtesy: the archive of the Museum of Courtesy: Mladinska knjiga Publishing – archive.balkaninsight.com, courtesy: – Ahangar, 1 April 1979 p. 86 – sothebys.com
Puppetry of the Ljubljana Puppet Theatre, House and Uroš Bučar. Leo Nikolic – Ahangar, 6 May 1979 – Muzeum Narodowe w Warszawie p. 107
photo: Zala Kalan – fanaru.com p. 47 p. 66 p. 87 – the-uma.org
– courtesy: National and University Library p. 30 – John Lamm, DeLorean: Stainless Steel – instagram.com/iran_art_meme/ – courtesy: László Rajk – MGLC archive, courtesy: Zhanna Kadyrova
archive, Ljubljana – Fran Levstik, Martin Krpan z Vrha, Illusion (Newport: Newport Press, 1983). p. 67 p. 88 and GALLERIA CONTINUA, San Gimignano,
– friday.az (Ljubljana: Mladinska knjiga, 1954). – courtesy: Trio Sarajevo – Scharmgah, 26 May 2016 – MGLC archive, courtesy: Giorgi Xaniashvili Beijing, Les Moulins, Havana
– simplicissimus.info Courtesy: Mladinska knjiga Publishing – William J. Clinton Presidential Library – twitter.com/humansoflateje p. 89 pp. 108–109
p. 10 House and Vanda Vremšak Richter. p. 48 p. 68 – Lesbian Library and Archive at ŠKUC LL, – MGLC archive, courtesy: Nicole Wermers,
– thepublicsradio.org, photo: Darko Bandic – MGLC archive, courtesy: Woody de – canadianaci.ca – Ahangar, 14 July 1979 Ljubljana Herald St., London; Jessica Silverman
– photo: REUTERS / Valentyn Ogirenko Othello and Jessica Silverman Gallery, – youtube.com – Ahangar, 13 July 1979 – courtesy: Martine Gutierrez and Ryan Lee, Gallery, San Francisco; Produzentengalerie
p. 14 San Francisco p. 49 pp. 69–72 New York Hamburg; and Tanya Bonakdar Gallery,
– MGLC archive, courtesy: the Top Lista p. 31 – courtesy and photo: Paul Chan, Creative – courtesy: Alenka Pirman & KULA p. 90 New York
Nadrealista cast and creators – courtesy: James McCauley / REX / Time and Greene Naftali, New York p. 73 – MGLC archive, courtesy: XIYADIE and p. 110
p. 17 Shutterstock pp. 50–51 – National Library of Poland NOME gallery, Berlin – wikimedia.org
– wikimedia.org – MGLC archive, courtesy: Martina Vacheva – MGLC archive, courtesy: Pablo Bronstein p. 74 p. 91 p. 111
p. 18 and Sariev Contemporary p. 52 – photo: Kevin Cummins – bukowskis.com – britishmuseum.org
– Fran Levstik, Martin Krpan z Vrha, p. 32 – relics-rarities.com – courtesy: Fritz Brinckmann / Faceland – calvertjournal.com p. 112
(Ljubljana: Mladinska knjiga, 1954). – MGLC archive, courtesy: Martina Vacheva – AP images, photo: Peter Northall – thewindow.barneys.com p. 92 – courtesy: Flaka Haliti and
Courtesy: Mladinska knjiga Publishing and Sariev Contemporary p. 53 p. 75 – MGLC archive, courtesy: Dozie Kanu and LamdaLamdaLamda
House and Vanda Vremšak Richter. p. 33 – wikimedia.org – rbtoday.ru, Misha Buster archive Salon 94 Design p. 113
– courtesy: Marlie Mul and Croy Nielsen – MGLC archive – courtesy: Gary Knight, VII and Redux – KP archive – falajf.si. Cerknica Carnival, 2019, – silviakolbowskiblog.com
p. 19 pp. 34–35 p. 54 p. 76 photo: Falajfl. – Fran Milčinski, Butalci (Ljubljana: Mladinska
– wikimedia.org – Eduard Fuchs (dir.), Süddeutscher Postillon: – courtesy: Stane Jagodič – courtesy: Society for Theoretical p. 93 knjiga, 2017), illustrated by Peter Škerl.
– courtesy: Salinen Prosol d.o.o, Ljubljana Politisch-Satirisches Arbeiterblatt – MGLC archive, courtesy: Sachiko Kazama, Psychoanalysis archive – MGLC archive, photo: Urška Boljkovac Courtesy: Mladinska knjiga Publishing
p. 20 (The South German Carriage Driver: and MUJIN-TO Production – wikimedia.org pp. 94–96 House and Peter Škerl.
– courtesy: National Gallery of Slovenia, Political-Satirical Worker’s Newspaper), p. 55 p. 77 – courtesy: Augustin Maurs pp. 114–115
photo: Bojan Salaj biweekly journal (Munich: M. Ernst, 1899). – theonion.com – Archiv der Jugendkulturen e.v. p. 98 – MGLC archive, courtesy: Honza Zamojski
– Fran Levstik, Martin Krpan (Ljubljana: p. 36 pp. 56–57 p. 78 – katab.asia and Drei, Cologne
Mladinska knjiga, 2017). – Henry Wessells, Donald Trump – MGLC archive, courtesy: Lawrence – wikimedia.org – courtesy: Metahaven p. 120
Courtesy: Mladinska knjiga Publishing The Magazine of Poetry, (New Jersey: Abu Hamdan – Anna Dąbrowska-Lyons, Polski punk p. 99 – MGLC archive, courtesy: Amanda Ross-Ho
House and Uroš Bučar. Temporary Culture, 2016). p. 58 1978–1982 (Warsaw: Agencja – illustration by Elsa El Haïby / Slavs and and Mary Mary, Glasgow
p. 21 p. 37 – wikimedia.org Promocyjno-Wydawnicza “ADA”, 1999). Tatars Back cover
– courtesy: Zavod Strip art, Ljubljana – Michael Myers, Impeach Nixon, linocut p. 59 – Paweł Konjo Konnak, Explozja Zlewu, Vol. 1 p. 100 – courtesy: National Gallery of Slovenia,
– hellenicaworld.com printed bumpersticker (San Francisco: – wikimedia.org (Warsaw: Narodowe Centrum Kultury, 2016). – illustration by Matt Furie photo: Bojan Salaj
p. 22 Hermes Free Press, ca. 1972). – courtesy: Sarajevo Center for p. 79 – illustration by Beth Neville
– onb.ac.at Contemporary Art, photo: Lejla Hodžić – Piotr Rypson archive – washingtonpost.com
– nga.gov – mikes-szmata.bandcamp.com

116 117 CRACK UP – CRACK DOWN

 COLOPHON

CRACK UP – CRACK DOWN Participating Artists and Contributors Greene Naftali Gallery The book was published as a part of CIP - Kataložni zapis o publikaciji All rights reserved. No part of this publication
Lawrence Abu Hamdan Nathalie Hoyos, Rainald Schumacher the 33rd Ljubljana Biennial of Graphic Arts Narodna in univerzitetna knjižnica, Ljubljana may be reproduced in any form or by any
Editors Hamja Ahsan and Art Collection Telekom Crack Up – Crack Down electronic means without prior written
M. Constantine, Slavs and Tatars Emily Apter Barbara Jaki © 2019 International Centre of Graphic 76(100)”20” permission from the copyright holders.
Publication Manager Pablo Bronstein Ana Janevski Arts (MGLC), Mousse Publishing,
Asya Yaghmurian Dragoș Cristian Jessica Silverman Gallery the artists, the authors of the texts GRAFIČNI bienale Ljubljana The publishers would like to thank all those
Graphic Design and Typesetting Cevdet Erek Jure Kirbiš (33 ; 2019 ; Ljubljana) who have kindly given their permission
Stan de Natris / Slavs and Tatars Woody De Othello Gal Kirn All artwork images © the artists, Crack up - crack down / 33rd Ljubljana for the reproduction of material for this
Illustrations Arthur Fournier & Raphael Koenig Anastasia Marukhina photographers, galleries and other Biennial of Graphic Arts ; [edited by] book. Every effort has been made to obtain
Nejc Prah Martine Gutierrez Ljubljana Puppet Theatre and institutions as noted Slavs and Tatars, [M. Constantine] ; permission to reproduce the images and
Design Assistance Flaka Haliti Museum of Puppetry [Slovene-to-English translation Maja texts in this catalogue. However, as is
Elsa El Haïby / Slavs and Tatars Stane Jagodič Kaiu Meiner Published and distributed by Lovrenov ; illustrations Nejc Prah]. - 1st standard editorial policy, the publishers
Publication Coordinator and Zhanna Kadyrova Mladinska knjiga Publishing House Mousse Publishing ed. - Milan : Mousse Publishing ; Ljubljana : are at the disposal of copyright holders
Image Research Assistant Dozie Kanu Daniel Muzyczuk Contrappunto s.r.l. Socio Unico International Centre of Graphic Arts, 2019 and undertake to correct any omissions
Vesna Česen Rošker KRIWET National Gallery of Slovenia Corso di Porta Romana 63 or errors in future editions.
Image Research Sachiko Kazama Nome Gallery 20122, Milan, Italy ISBN 978-88-6749-388-3
Mara Goldwyn, Slavs and Tatars Ella Kruglyanskaya Natia Mikeladse-Bachsoliani and (Mousse Publishing) Cooperation and financial support
Copy Editing Tala Madani Goethe-Zentrum, Yerevan International Centre of Graphic Arts ISBN 978-961-6229-76-0
Paul Steed Augustin Maurs Ana Ofak (MGLC) (International Centre of Graphic Arts)
Proofreading Metahaven Hana Ostan Ožbolt Grad Tivoli, Pod turnom 3 1. Gl. stv. nasl.
Josephine Baker-Heaslip Marlie Mul Berenika Partum 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia COBISS.SI-ID 301552896
Slovene-to-English Translation Marina Orsag Nataša Petrešin-Bachelez
Maja Lovrenov Alenka Pirman & KULA Irena Popiashvili Available through Price: €27 / $30
Lithography Boštjan Gorenc - Pižama Salinen Prosol d.o.o. Mousse Publishing,
Tadeusz Mirosz Amanda Ross-Ho Raster Gallery Milan
Lin May Saeed Marijan Rupert and National and moussepublishing.com   
Accompanying Crack Up – Crack Down, Mohammad Salemy University Library of Slovenia
the exhibition of the 33rd Ljubljana Biennial Vid Simoniti Salon 94 Design DAP | Distributed Art Publishers,
of Graphic Arts Hinko Smrekar Sariev Contemporary New York
MGLC – International Centre Top Lista Nadrealista Aaron Schuster artbook.com    
of Graphic Arts Endre Tot Sergey Shabohin
Grad Tivoli, Pod turnom 3, Anna Uddenberg Alenka Simončič Vice Versa Distribution,
Ljubljana, Slovenia Martina Vacheva Society for Theoretical Psychoanalysis Berlin
7 June–29 September 2019 Pavlo Voytovich Uroš Škerl viceversaartbooks.com
Nicole Wermers Tanya Bonakdar Gallery
Curator Anja Wutej Sarah Johanna Theurer and Les presses du réel,    
Slavs and Tatars Giorgi Xaniashvili Kraupa-Tuskany Zeidler Dijon
Assistant Curator XIYADIE Vanda Vremšak Richter lespressesdureel.com
Asya Yaghmurian Honza Zamojski Zavod Strip art
Exhibition Design Antenne Books,
Stan de Natris / Slavs and Tatars Slavs and Tatars would like to thank and the upcoming 2nd edition, 2020 London
Exhibition Design Assistance Jaka Babnik Center for Contemporary Art antennebooks.com
Kaiu Meiner, Sophia Msaoubi / Zdenka Badovinac Ujazdowski Castle
Slavs and Tatars Ajdin Bašić Jazdów 2, 00-467 First edition: 1,200 copies, 2019
Identity Design Alina Bliumis Warsaw, Poland
Nejc Prah Urška Boljkovac Printed on
Director Fritz Brinckmann Director Condat Matt Périgord 115 g/m²
Nevenka Šivavec Uroš Bučar Małgorzata Ludwisiak Symbol Card 2 250 g/m²
Assistant Director Book Works Deputy Director
Yasmín Martín Vodopivec Alexander Burenkov and Strelka Urszula Kropiwiec Printed in Germany by
Coordinator Institute for Media Architecture Artistic Director medialis Offsetdruck GmbH
Božidar Zrinski and Design Jarosław Lubiak Heidelberger Strasse 65/66
Public Programme Hera Chan Assistant Curator 12435 Berlin, Germany
Lili Šturm, Asya Yaghmurian, Clementine Deliss Michał Grzegorzek
Slavs and Tatars Zenit Đozić
Branko Đurić
Amanda Flores

118 119 CRACK UP – CRACK DOWN

Amanda Ross-Ho, Untitled Crisis Actor
(HURTS WORST 2), 2019.
→
Hinko Smrekar, Slovenian Art Exhibition,
ca. 1910. Courtesy of the National Gallery
of Slovenia. *Translation of a text on the
artwork by Hinko Smrekar: “Who knows,
such an exhibition of Slovenian art might
even be pleasing, after all?”