Iztok Kovač is a choreographer and founder of En–Knap. Following the international success of his solo How I Caught a Falcon (1991), he became one of the key figures in the development of Slovenian contemporary dance. He founded En–Knap Group, Slovenia's first permanent contemporary dance ensemble, and serves as artistic director of both En–Knap and the Španski borci Cultural Centre. His works have toured internationally for more than three decades. Additionally, his artistic practice includes six dance films, international pedagogical work, guest choreography and the direction of major national events in Slovenia. During the Covid period, he initiated Stage360, developing dance works in virtual reality.
Branded is a VR adaptation of Superfluous, a performance inspired by Ilya Troyanov’s essay Superfluous Man. In an intertwining choreography of movement, words and music, Branded takes on personal and social positions, situations in which the ‘superfluous’ and the ‘branded’ are a symptom, an effect of the system, of its antagonisms, its struggles, from the economy of comfort and the unemployed to the democracy of choice and the homeless. Who is the last one we give up when we have given up a human being?