INTRODUCTION

At the beginning of the 80ies, the group Laibach emerged together with Neue Slowenische Kunst (NSK). These groups used fine art and concept strategies to appropriate the gestures and rituals of dictatorial power. They achieved a so-called cult status in countries far beyond the boundaries of South-Eastern Europe.

Then at the beginning of the 90ies electro- and dub-formations like Darkwood Dub created lyrics which were chanted in the streets of Belgrade by tens of thousands of people when they demonstrated against the war and the regime of Milosevic. This is remarkable as neither their musical style nor their lyrics are intended to manipulate a mass audience, on the contrary.

Due to the special conditions in South Eastern Europe, a singular scene developed over the last few decades both in Rock and Pop, as well as other fields of art. This relatively "thawed" period allowed a non-capitalist criticism of the political system and relatively good information about international developments in avantgarde and rock-movements. This in turn generated, especially in the years after 1968, original and unprecedenced forms, such as YU-Rock.

Though this Punk-scene collapsed in 1984, it remains, as does the Rock-scene as a whole, important for the social role it played. This role was more significant than in many other europeon countries – especially in the context of the war after 1987.

All artists were forced to make political decisions: Some organized (the only real) opposition, some emigrated, and others – not the best ones – howled with the various nationalistic wolves.

The high aesthetic-political level of this tradition is to this day pursued in present day Post-Yugoslavia (respectively Serbia and Montenegro) by bands like Darkwood Dub.

The SeriousPop-Team and its numerous partners had, by 2001. discovered other phenomena on the borders of fine arts, popculture and social movements of great relevance for civil society:

The Plastic People of the Universe, for instance, come from Prague. After the crushing of the Prague Spring they persisted in performing their music publicly, and because of censorship they were arrested. The backlash generated by their friends became generally known as Charta 77. At the request of Vaclav Havel (Velvet Revolution), Lou Reed (from the Velvet Underground, which originated in Andy Warhols Factory in New York) and their lead singer Milan Hlavsa gave a concert in the White House.

In contemporary New York Gogol Bordello has recently been founded. With their unprecedented amalgam of Gypsy-, Klezmer-, Punk- and SocialBeat-influences they increasingly play gigs in Old Europe, the more so as they all, apart from the drummer, emigrated from Eastern Europe to the Land of the free and the home of the brave. (They were awarded Audience Award for best Performance at the Roskilde Festival 2003, Denmark)

Therefore, our concentration on the complex of YU-Rock and the territory of South-Eastern Europe could not remain the last world on this diverse phenomenon, though it will remain the focus of research. As of May 1st, (the date of the EU-extension from 15 to 25 partners), SeriousPop involves a West-Eastern-European terrain, which brings a new dynamic to all the participants. Its first manifestation will be the SeriousPop Summit 2004, taking place in November and December in Vienna.

What will be heard and seen there concerns the different prospects and contributions to a common future. SeriousPop will test and evaluate the frequently cited potential of South-Eastern Europe to represent Europe in a small nutshell in a new and different way.


EXEMPLARY QUESTIONS:

The Summit 04 will concentrate on artistic strategies of aesthetic appropriation, particularly those emerging in post-Tito Jugoslavia, and on the their historical and socio-cultural contexts. A first inventory:

- In what way was the ideological quandery of the totalitarian occupation of Slovenia by the Germans presented, the issue with which Neue Slowenische Kunst (Laibach, IRWIN, etc.) amongst others, begin to refer to the past,? And what problems can be picked out at present, in the west of the west, western Europe, in the Ukraine or in Turkey?

-In what sense do these strategies of aesthetic appropriation (the use of symbols, gestures, dramaturgies, etc. against their original sense) differ from those in Western Europe and America? To what extent, and for what reasons are the usual cultural-theoretical designations for these strategies, such as ‚Pop’ or ‚Appropriation’ valid concepts, and are they acceptable at all? Is it really meaningful to describe YU-Rock as YU-Pop?

- What can such SeriousPop-phenomena tell us about their particular social contexts? And what cultural-theoretical approaches are useful for this investigation?

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Further exemplary questions, picked out as central themes

- How are the effects of appropriative strategies dissipated when they are adapted in other national and cultural contexts, such as the German groups Rammstein and Oomph! or the American megastar Marilyn Manson?

- In what way are the serious aspects of SeriousPop represented? Is it appropriate to discuss the connections between several art- and subcultural scenes and the emblems of RAF (Rote Armee Fraktion)? Or the problems of anorexia, suffered by many young women under the influence of a media ideal perpetuated by postindustrial society? What about the condition of pop-literature in the past and today, and the literature in times of Pop?

- What is the future of folk and folklore, if we acknowledge how modern society is organised more and more by a complex division of labour... How is a genre that could prosper for centuries developed out of its grassroots, and without an industrial context, is transferred to an enviroment in which its sentiment is effectively engaged in a popcultural and culture-industrial sense, and is therfore buyable? Could the urban, as oppossed to the rural, bonding with the earth that Punk stands for, be its possible, new and surprising ally?

-And what is currently reflected in the ‚glocalised’ contexts of Techno-Folk, Turbo-Folk, Arabesque, World-Music or Immigrant-Punk?

-And if strategies that combine aesthetic appropriation and social engagement have a stake in the future, which forms of production and distribution are the most effective? Are the field of fine arts and in popular music still relevant as partners? Which paths are to be avoided, which are too common and less promising? And which ones ought to be taken?