Reverend Chris Korda: Strychnine and Despair

TEXT: HIÄS WRBA

Thoughts and beliefs sometimes sneak through the maze of history in the strangest of detours. Strange points of contact can be found over the centuries, invisible lines link the aspirations of the human being as a cultural animal. Nothing more and nothing less than "lipstick traces". In the middle of the 12th century, one of the first heretical religious communities flourished in the south of France: the Cathars. Their dualistic, gnostic interpretation of the Bible not only forced them into poverty, but also strictly prohibited them from reproducing so as not to bring more souls into the world that needed to be redeemed. The Cathars achieved considerable influence with their views and not only persuaded the Catholic Church to create the Inquisition, but also to establish the principle of the crusade, which we hear so much about again these days. Rome's countermeasures were successful and thus led to the extinction of the faith through the burning of Guillaume Belibaste, the last ordained Cathar priest.

Today, just over 800 years later, I am sitting opposite Reverend Chris Korda, the head of a religious community that is starting from a very similar point. Even if the background is different, the problem is the same: the unstoppable reproductive drive of Homo Sapiens. So an extremely eloquent, polite and, not least, enormously charismatic musician, when asked to briefly summarize his beliefs, speaks as follows:

"The Church of Euthanasia is a religious community dedicated to restoring the balance between humans and the remaining non-human life forms through voluntary population reduction. Each of our members makes a lifelong commitment not to have children, thereby obeying the Church's first and only commandment, 'You shall not procreate.' The other four pillars of the Church of Euthanasia, suicide, abortion, cannibalism and sodomy, are all optional."

To avoid any misunderstandings, sodomy in this case does not mean the love of certain farmers for their livestock, but any form of sex that does not serve the purpose of reproduction. The propaganda methods that the church uses to spread its faith among the people are as imaginative as they are effective. Counter-demonstrations are held on the sidelines of Christian anti-abortion rallies, Korda tours the electronics-savvy nightclubs of the world with his music, and recently the art market has conquered a territory in which the church had not previously been represented. Her contribution to the group exhibition "Transsexual Express" in Barcelona was promptly censored, along with a self-portrait of the chronically naked Briton Tracey Emin. Attention through provocation is Korda's magic formula, with which he clearly sets himself apart from other forms of civil resistance.

"It's an old left-wing idea that the best way to demonstrate against the police or the army is to lie down in front of tanks or put flowers in gun barrels. I find that very naive. The techniques that work are much more cynical, ironic and intelligent. You have to create provocations that manipulate the media to beat them at their own game."

Korda is well aware that there is always a risk of being forced into the role of court jester. Potential interest in the intellectual background, which is by no means a joke, must first find its way through a mishmash of nasty slogans and over-the-top actions. What then emerges is a philosophy that advocates that we are prepared to "... fight to the death to prove to ourselves that we are the crown of creation. If necessary, we will cut down every tree on earth and eradicate every last patch of wilderness to defend this belief." Human megalomania, says Korda, is dragging not only our environment but also ourselves into the abyss. In a perfidious way, we are really something like the end of evolution that we so like to believe ourselves to be. The master race with a built-in self-destruction mechanism. Such a pessimistic worldview gives birth to clear, cold thoughts and biting mockery. The cookies that the youth department of the Church of Euthanasia offers to good citizens on their doorsteps are made of strychnine and desperation, served with the sweetest smile. Chris Korda is not interested in a romantically veiled longing for death, but in a sober display of the madness that surrounds us. Breaking taboos is a concept. In "I Like to Watch", his first music video, CNN footage from September 11th is shown together with cumshots and cheering scenes from football games. In the accompanying statement, he even goes a step further. "I don't think I'm the only person who found sexual satisfaction in seeing two of America's largest buildings destroyed, but I think I'm one of the few who admits it publicly." When Korda speaks like this, he's preaching, and even though his apocalyptic gospel may be very daring and cynical at times, he says a lot that you can't just ignore. The recurring dream that our planet could be a lot better off without us is sometimes not that difficult to understand. It's just a shame that with all the interesting ideas being conveyed here, there's hardly any time to talk about Korda's new EP. But when asked at the end whether that doesn't bother him, he just says that he prefers "ideology articles" anyway. Well then, so be it.

The "When It Rains EP" by Chris Korda will be released soon on Int. Gigolo/EFA.