Němcová Iva

(1980- 2015)
Stage and costume designer, conceptual artist

The untimely deceased artist Iva Němcová went down in Czech scenography history with her work for drama theatre and designs for opera productions. As interpreted by her, the stages often represented contexts for installation of realistic interiors, which, however, did not represent a mere illustration of a dramatic text, but an independent scenographic and dramaturgical structure. Iva Němcová’s artistic expression was realized as part of her tendency to build static interiors and create stage designs based on invariability. Her work focused on details, dealt with history as a tangible and meaning-bearing artifact (e.g. reflections of recent spaces from recent past) and other forms of exaggeration.

Iva Němcová is the author of scenographic and costume designs for many productions. She worked with directors Daniel Špinar (Hamlet, Švandovo Theatre, 2013), Jan Frič (Angels among Us, Masopust Theatre Company, 2013), Martin Glaser (High Noon, South Bohemian Theatre České Budějovice, 2009), Lucie Málková Orbók (Urinetown: The Musical, F. X. Šalda Theatre Liberec, 2009) and others.

As a costume designer, she often worked in a duo with stage designer Nikola Tempír (Tartuffe Games, 2009, The Cherry Orchard, 2013, Theatre on the Balustrade). She also created a visual style for many non-commercial videos and projects (Hospice Foundation, Jedlička Institute, Design Help) and she created the artistic form of videos for The Tap Tap band. Her film production is depicted in two feature films in which she was engaged as an architect and costume designer: Gottland (directed by Radovan Síbrt, 2014) and Family Film (directed by Olmo Omerzu, 2015).

Iva Němcová studied window dressing at the Business College in Žďár nad Sázavou and stage design in Professor Jan Dušek’s studio at the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague. She studied in London for one year and attended courses of stage design and performance at

University of the Arts London. She received the National Theatre Award for the Artist of up to 35 Years of Age in memoriam for her work on Leoš Janáček’s From the House of the Dead.