DEBBY WYE: NSK State in Time is a remarkable project by a Slovenian artists’ collective called IRWIN. The men you see in these posters are actual soldiers from armies in Kosovo, Croatia and Montenegro. IRWIN succeeded in getting the soldiers to participate in this project, which examines concepts of ideology and statehood. You can see that they are wearing NSK armbands and standing under the NSK State in Time flag.
MIRAN MOHAR: My name is Miran Mohar I am a member of the group of visual artists IRWIN.
BORUT VOGELNIK: My name is Borut Vogelnik, a member of IRWIN. IRWIN is a group of artists that working together now for 23 years…
MIRAN MOHAR: …and IRWIN is a part of the wider collective, which is called NSK, which unites together different groups working in different medias.
BORUT VOGELNIK: NSK stands for Neue Slowenische Kunst, what in German means new Slovenian art. The NSK State in Time is a state. It's a state, which is without territory. The key element of the project is that it's always done in collaboration with the army of a particular country. This is crucial. We never, never cheated.
MIRAN MOHAR: “In the beginning of the '90s, the big ideological system in the East change and fall apart. The soldiers which you see on the photos, they are soldiers, especially soldiers from the Balkan region who have been just a few years ago in real battles on these territories.
BORUT VOGELNIK: We asked the soldiers to stand under the flag of NSK. So, as probably you know, it's crucial for each army that all of soldiers at certain moments do swear publicly that they are never going to stand under another flag. So, in fact, what we asked them is to break this basic bent, which is established in the army.