Photo credits: Ivian Kan Mujezinović
Artist statement
Born in Ljubljana on March 6th, 1998 Klemen Kovačič graduated from Theatre Acting (BA) in 2021 at the Academy of Theatre, Radio, Film and Television (AGRFT) University of Ljubljana, under the mentorship of Jernej Šugman, Jernej Lorenci and Branko Jordan. In his final graduating performance »Jagababa« by Dane Zajc, he portrayed Gregor, the lead character.
In 2020 he received The Student Award of Stane Sever Fund and The Academy Prešeren Award for the role of Hamlet in »Towards Hamlet Genotype« directed by dragan Živadinov. The piece was selected to perfom at the 56. Maribor Theatre Festival.
During his studies he quickly started working as an actor; participating in projects at institutional theatre companies (City Theatre of Ljubljana, Slovene National Theatre of Nova Gorica, Glej Theatre) and working with established theatre directors (Dragan Živadinov, Diego de Brea, Yonatan Esterkin). He is currently working in the Slovene Youth Theatre on a project with Bojana Lazić. He also collaborates with Radio Television of Slovenia (RTV SLO) by hosting children’s shows, doing voiceover for animated series and reading for literary broadcasts on Radio Slovenia. He was also cast in a feature film »Deadlock« (2021) directed by Vinko Möderndorfer.
He is a member and one of the founders of »Počemučka« – an artistic collective, founded in 2018 that focuses on devised theatre. He performed and co-created their shows: »Piano and screaming« (AGRFT, 2019) and »Under construction« (Glej Theatre, 2021).
“I see theatre as a vast mixture of different art disciplines. Even more so than the traditional theatre form where my role is limited to the role of an actor, I am interested in devised theatre and more collaborative ways of creating. I get to explore that in my work with Počemučka collective. The very name »Počemučka« (Russian for an extremely curious child who constantly asks »Why?«) reveals the creative intention of our collective as well as me personally. What I consider the driving force of my creativity is pure curiousity. I use it in my attempt to discover and explore other ways and different manners, to question behaviors and conventions that are taken for granted – all of that in search of expressing myself through my very own language that is variable but at the same time sets clear critical statements towards social issues of the world we live in.”