Iztok Kovač, Sašo Podgoršek

Vašhava

29 min

#en–knap dance films

2014

The workers’ and mining facilities, characterising and changing the Slovenian mining town of Trbovlje for almost two centuries, which have already been captured on camera in the previous films shot by En–Knap, have to face an uncertain future and the possibility of impending demolition. In this homage by the author Iztok Kovač to his birth town, the international dance company En–Knap Group confronts the mining facilities for the last time, before they disappear from the collective consciousness forever. The parting is decent: for the last time the members of the group fill these places with vitality and life as they experience it themselves.

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Vašhava is a requiem. With this film we bid farewell to Trbovlje, just as during the filming, mining also came to a final close in this valley. Emotional reactions of vigorous men who from generation to generation proudly handed down their ‘noble’ mission, descending into the darkness and coming back up into the light, were eerie. 

I do not recall the last time I experienced something so deeply sad, such a collective emptiness that tore through time. Many of the locations where we filmed our shots over the last twenty years, from Narava Beso in 1995 to Vašhava in 2014 have already been totally wiped off the face of this earth by passage of time. With the closing of the mine fell the last gang of the Trbovlje of my youth. That is why Vašhava is a requiem. We entered for the last time the places where specific physical work was once undertaken and inhabited them with our energy, fusing for the last time the seemingly infusible, in order to finally confirm our identity. 

Iztok Kovač

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bio

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.

Sašo Podgoršek is a Slovenian film director and visual artist whose work spans music videos, documentaries, dance films, commercials and feature films. After graduating from the Academy of Theatre, Radio, Film and Television in Ljubljana, he gained international recognition with his award-winning short film But the Goat Survived (1991), which was screened at festivals worldwide. A long-time collaborator of artists and collectives including Laibach, Marko Peljhan and Iztok Kovač, Podgoršek has developed a distinctive visual language that moves fluidly between film, music and performance. He has directed more than fifty music videos for some of the most prominent artists in the region, while his films and video works have received numerous national and international awards. His work is characterised by a strong visual sensibility, a focus on atmosphere and movement, and an ongoing dialogue with contemporary performing arts.

credits

Choreography Iztok Kovač

Created and performed by Luke Thomas Dunne, Ida Katarina Hellsten, Bence Mezei, Ana Štefanec, Tamás Tuza 

Guests Gyula Cserepes, Barbara Kanc, Katja Legin, Lada Petrovski Ternovšek, Ravi Ternovšek

Photography Sven Pepeonik 

Set design Niko Novak 

Costume design Valter Kobal 

Editing Sašo Podgoršek 

Sound design Charo Calvo

En–Knap production team Meta Lavrič, Iztok Kovač, Sašo Podgoršek

 

Produced by En–Knap Productions

With support Slovenian Film Fund