Seven new protégés are starting extraordinary creative journeys with their mentors, artists who are among the best in the world, which is kicked off by Rolex Arts Initiative for 2016-17. The seven mentors were announced last year including David Chiepperfield for architecture and Mia Couto in literature, Alfonso Cuarón for film, Philip Glass for music, Joan Jonas for visual arts, Robert Lepage for theatre and Ohad Naharin for dance.

Seven highly gifted young artists from four continents are about to join one of the world’s leading arts philanthropy programmes, bringing to a total of 50 the number of young talents who have participated in the Rolex Arts Initiative since its launch in 2002.

The new protégés – a Swiss architect, a writer from Brazil, a Peruvian musician, a dancer from South Africa, an Argentinian/Spanish theatre artist, a film-maker from India and a Vietnamese visual artist – are being mentored by some of the most acclaimed figures in the contemporary arts worldwide: British architect Sir David Chipperfield, Israeli choreographer Ohad Naharin, Mexican film director Alfonso Cuarón, poet and novelist Mia Couto, from Mozambique, American composer Philip Glass, Canadian theatre director Robert Lepage and American performance and video artist Joan Jonas.

The young artists, one for each of the programme’s seven disciplines, are aged from 22 to 36. The Rolex Arts Initiative gives the mentor-protégé pairs funding and logistical support, enabling them to spend at least six weeks working together, though many of mentoring pairs often spend much more.

Each mentoring pair will have the liberty to decide how best to use their time in the most creative and productive way possible. At the end of the 12 months, each of the protégés will create or produce a work or performance that will be part of a Rolex Arts Weekend in late 2017.

Architecture

British architecture mentor Sir David Chipperfield has taught throughout his career, but believes the mentorship will give him a rare opportunity to share his insights and experience. The Rolex Arts Initiative “gives me a chance to be involved in an on-going dialogue outside of the normal studio environment”. His Swiss protégé, Simon Kretz, says his goal for the year is “to realize challenging projects – and furthermore to interrelate practical work, research and theory on small-scale projects as well as on large-scale projects.”

Mentor and protégée in dance-Londiwe Khoza and Ohad Naharin, a year of mentoring 

Famous as the inventor of Gaga, his own technique of movement, choreographer Ohad Naharin has clear goals for the mentoring year. “The centre of this project is the protégée. I want for her to gain as much as possible.” 

Protégée Londiwe Khoza’s determination matches his: “I want to be the kind of dancer that can do everything and has the ability to say everything with her body.” But there is room for the unexpected, with Khoza adding: “I’m hoping to develop in such a way that enables me to tap into aspects of who I am that I haven’t quite discovered.”

Mentor and protégé in film-Chaitanya Tamhane and Alfonso Cuarón, a year of mentoring

Academy Award-winner Alfonso Cuarón has made his name directing one highly original film after another, from Y Tu Mamá También (2001) to Gravity (2013). Even with a string of internationally acclaimed masterworks to his credit, Cuarón sees the mentorship as “a two-way street” in which “both parties are rewarded. I don’t have any expectations, but there’s only gain when knowledge is shared.” For protégé Chaitanya Tamhane, the longed-for mentorship “could facilitate a dialogue, a creative collaboration and an insight that I have so far not had access to”.

Mentor and protégé in literature- Julián Fuks and Mia Couto, a year of mentoring

Mia Couto, one of Africa’s leading writers, is only too well aware of the need for mentoring among young writers. “There is not a week,” he says, “without boys and girls knocking at my door in order to share what they are writing. I feel touched by their absolute loneliness.” 

His intention, with his young protégé, Brazilian Julián Fuks, is “to be that other person who can listen and confirm [his] existence”. This is exactly what Fuks requires. “Writing is a very solitary and demanding craft,” he says. “This programme gives an incredible support to face these austere contingencies.”

Mentor and protégée in music- Pauchi Sasaki and Philip Glass, a year of mentoring

American composer Philip Glass confesses that he is “not a teacher” but says: “The best thing I can give [the protégée] is my time and attention. He explains that “the most important teachers for me were living teachers. That would have been Ravi Shankar, Alla Rakha, and another would have been Madame [Nadia] Boulanger.” 

For his young Peruvian protégée, Sasaki, the mentorship programme will be life-changing. “All the experiences will allow me to grow in many levels, as an artist and as a professional composer.”

Mentor and protégé in theatre- Matías Umpierrez and Robert Lepage, a year of mentoring

Matías Umpierrez has built a profile in Argentina with his experimental, “neo-technological” works that combine the theatrical and audio-visual. His twin goals to transcend genres while continuously engaging his audience in a dynamic conversation – make him the ideal protégé for the unique, transdisciplinary director Robert Lepage, whose highly original works defy classification. Lepage says of the year they are now beginning: “We call it mentorship, but actually it is a dialogue.” Regretting never having had a mentor, Lepage approaches it with generosity and an open mind: “I hope that the protégé will understand that his opinion is as important as ours.”

Mentor and protégée in visual arts- Thao-Nguyen Phan and Joan Jonas, a year of mentoring

The legendary Joan Jonas accepted Rolex’s invitation to be a mentor because, she says: “I enjoy meeting young artists and am curious about their concerns in this chaotic and difficult time. I hope to have a dialogue that might clarify thoughts and ideas. Also to exchange with another, information previously hidden – and to visit unknown spaces.” 

Moved by Jonas’s “extraordinary power to reinvent, being so groundbreaking from one work to the next”, protégée Thao-Nguyen Phan believes the mentorship will be “double-layered by the intimacy between two artistic souls and the complexity of shared history between Vietnam and the United States”.

Top image: Mentor and protégé in architecture- Simon Kretz and Sir David Chipperfield, A year of mentoring

All image courtesy of Rolex Art Initiative

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