(*1977)
Stage designer, visual artist
Robert Smolík along with Jan Dörner, Jakub Hybler, Tomáš Procházka and Veronika Švábová make up the artistic company Handa Gote, which merges scenic production using new technologies, and the production has been influenced by minimalism, Eastern philosophy, Japanese aesthetics as well as a DIY approach.
Apart from scenography, he deals with making puppets and mechanical objects. As a scenographer he has worked with professional puppet theatres (Lampion, Minor, Naïve Theatre Liberec and others), independent groups, and he has also created his productions. He is the author of stage designs for theatres in the Czech Republic, Slovenia and Canada.
In the past 12 years his “theatre” production has focused on cooperation with Cakes and Puppets company, and research and development in Handa Gote company. He is also a visual artist and activist in his home town Jičín, where he also participates in revitalization of Baroque sights in Jičín. He has worked with RMaG Jičín, ZOO Liberec, CHKO Český Ráj, CHKO Litovelské pomoraví, CHKO Jizerské hory, Enviromentálním centrem DOTEK in Horní Maršov, Trutnov město draka association etc.
He graduated from stage design at the Alternative and Puppet Theatre Department at DAMU in Prague. He has been a teacher there since 2004 and he has been the head of the Scenography Cabinet at the Alternative and Puppet Theatre Department since 2011.
He has received many awards for scenography from Mateřinka and Skupa’s Pilsen festivals.
