David Chipperfield, Mia Couto, Alfonso Cuarón, Philip Glass, Joan Jonas, Robert Lepage and Ohad Naharin Choose Young Artists for Cross-Generational Dialogue

Rolex today announced the seven young artists who have been chosen for a year of intense, one-to-one collaboration with a renowned master in the 2016–2017 Rolex Mentor and Protégé Arts Initiative.

The programme, launched in 2002, brings together some of the world’s greatest artists with protégés in seven disciplines. The mentors for the eighth cycle of the Initiative are: Sir David Chipperfield (architecture), Mia Couto (literature), Alfonso Cuarón (film), Philip Glass (music), Joan Jonas (visual arts), Robert Lepage (theatre) and Ohad Naharin (dance).

The protégés were personally selected by their mentors after a worldwide search for candidates. They are:

Architecture: Simon Kretz (Switzerland)
Selected by mentor Sir David Chipperfield (United Kingdom)

Swiss architect, urbanist and researcher Simon Kretz, 34, is noted for his ability to design in a multitude of scales. Two years after receiving a master’s degree from ETH Zurich’s Department of Architecture in 2008, he co-founded the architectural firm Christina Nater und Simon Kretz Architeckten GmbH, and in 2014 became a founding partner of Christian Salewski & Simon Kretz Architekten GmbH. Kretz also lectures at leading Swiss institutions.

Dance: Londiwe Khoza (South Africa)
Selected by mentor Ohad Naharin (Israel)

Recognized over the past five years for her exceptional talent in neoclassical and contemporary dance, as well as her dramatic skills, South African Londiwe Khoza, 22, was a soloist at the Cape Dance Company while studying at the Cape Academy of Performing Arts. She recently performed with the Joburg Ballet, the country’s most prestigious ballet company, and has returned to the Cape Dance Company until July 2016.

Film: Chaitanya Tamhane (India)
Selected by mentor Alfonso Cuarón (Mexico)

Indian film-maker Chaitanya Tamhane, 29, has amazed critics with his debut feature film, Court, which premiered at the 2014 Venice Film Festival and has gone on to win over 30 awards at film festivals worldwide. The masterly satire by the self-trained young director was India’s submission for the 2016 Best Foreign Film Oscar. Tamhane is currently writing the script for his second feature film.

Literature: Julián Fuks (Brazil and Argentina)
Selected by mentor Mia Couto (Mozambique)

Nominated for his country’s top literary prizes, Brazilian Julián Fuks, 34, a writer, critic and translator, has won accolades for his work since earning a master’s degree at the Universidade de São Paulo. Fuks’s latest novel, A resistência (Resistance), which he calls the most important of the five books he has written, has been praised for its linguistic precision and lyricism.

Music: Pauchi Sasaki (Peru)
Selected by mentor Philip Glass (United States)

Singled out for her exceptional musical talent and composing skills, Peruvian violinist, composer and multimedia performance artist Pauchi Sasaki, 34, works across music styles and disciplines. A graduate of the Mills College (California) Electronic Music and Recording Media programme, she composes music for film, video, dance, theatre, installations and site-specific projects, while applying new technologies.

Theatre: Matías Umpierrez (Argentina and Spain)
Selected by mentor Robert Lepage (Canada)

Acknowledged for his experimental “neo-technological” works that combine the theatrical and audio-visual, Matías Umpierrez, 36, has developed innovative programmes at the University of Buenos Aires’s Rector Ricardo Rojas Cultural Center. Since 2014, he has directed and curated the Festival Internacional de Dramaturgia Europea + América, which he founded.

Visual Arts: Thao-Nguyen Phan (Vietnam)
Selected by mentor Joan Jonas (United States)

Through a combination of painting, video, performance and installation, Thao-Nguyen Phan, 28, has pushed the boundaries of contemporary art in Vietnam. After receiving a master’s degree in fine arts from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and in addition to working as a multimedia artist, she co-founded the collective Art Labor, which develops art projects benefiting the local community.

“The new intake of protégés brings the total number of emerging artists supported by Rolex since the Arts Initiative’s launch in 2002 to 50,” said Rebecca Irvin, Head of Philanthropy at Rolex. “This demonstrates both the scope of the programme in unearthing the world’s best young talent and its geographical diversity. Over the next year, each of the seven new protégés will have the invaluable benefit of a personal working relationship with a recognized master in his or her field. By the end of the cycle, they will all have become members of the global family of remarkable artists supported by the Rolex programme.”

Reacting to the news she had been chosen as the visual arts protégée, Thao-Nguyen Phan feels she can now finally realize her dreams. “I am moved by Joan’s [Jonas] extraordinary power to reinvent, being so groundbreaking from one work to the next. This innovative spirit is something that I deeply admire and want to learn from her,” she said. In expressing her aspirations for the mentoring year, newly named dance protégée Londiwe Khoza said: “I’m hoping to grow as an artist, really become the bridge between the choreographer and audience and truly connect.”

How the programme works

The Rolex Mentor and Protégé Arts Initiative accepts applications by invitation only, following a prospective candidate’s nomination by anonymous experts in his or her field. For the eighth edition of the Rolex Arts Initiative, the international nominators, or artistic “talent scouts” who identify potential protégés from their network of contacts worldwide, invited 159 artists from 53 countries to apply for mentorships; from that group, three or four artists from each discipline were chosen as finalists. It was at this stage that the mentor in each discipline met and
selected his or her protégé.

Each mentor-protégé pair has the freedom to work together in any way they choose, for a minimum of six weeks, though they are often in contact for the entire year. The fruits of this collaboration come to life at the Rolex Arts Weekend at the end of the mentoring period when participants share highlights from their interaction.

Protégés each receive a grant of 25,000 Swiss francs supplemented by 25,000 Swiss francs in support of a new work showcased after the mentoring year. Of equal benefit is the in-depth time each young artist spends with the master artist, enriching both of their lives, as well as the art form.

About the Rolex Mentor and Protégé Arts Initiative

The Rolex Mentor and Protégé Arts Initiative is a biennial philanthropic programme created by Rolex to ensure the world’s artistic heritage is passed on from generation to generation, across continents and cultures. Since its launch in 2002, the Initiative has built a remarkable artistic community that connects artists around the globe. Some of the world’s most distinguished artists have served as mentors. They are: Margaret Atwood, John Baldessari, Tahar Ben Jelloun, Trisha Brown, (the late) Patrice Chéreau, (the late) Sir Colin Davis, Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker, Olafur Eliasson, Brian Eno, Hans Magnus Enzensberger, William Forsythe, Stephen Frears, Gilberto Gil, Sir Peter Hall, David Hockney, Rebecca Horn, Alejandro González Iñárritu, Sir Anish Kapoor, William Kentridge, Jiří Kylián, Lin Hwai-min, Toni Morrison, Walter Murch, Mira Nair, Youssou N’Dour, Jessye Norman, Michael Ondaatje, Alexei Ratmansky, Kaija Saariaho, Martin Scorsese, Kazuyo Sejima, Peter Sellars, Álvaro Siza, Wole Soyinka, Julie Taymor, Jennifer Tipton, Saburo Teshigawara, Kate Valk, Mario Vargas Llosa, Robert Wilson, Zhang Yimou, Pinchas Zukerman and Peter Zumthor.

Past protégés include: Naomi Alderman, Sahel Al-Hiyari, Antonio García Ángel, Aditya Assarat, Edem Awumey, Sammy Baloji, Nahuel Perez Biscayart, Michał Borczuch, Gloria Cabral, Selina Cartmell, Josep Caballé-Domenech, David Aaron Carpenter, Alejandro Cesarco, Dina El Wedidi, Sara Fgaier, Lara Foot, Ben Frost, Eduardo Fukushima, Nicholas Hlobo, Masanori Handa, Annemarie Jacir, Sang Jijia, Julia Leigh, Federico León, Mateo López, Aurelio Martínez, Josué Méndez, Vasco Mendonça, Celina Murga, Miroslav Penkov, Susan Platts, Sebastián Solórzano Rodríguez, Anani Dodji Sanouvi, Junaid Jemal Sendi, Lee Serle, Tom Shoval, Tracy K. Smith, Jason Akira Somma, Myles Thatcher, Matthias Weischer, Tara June Winch, Maya Zbib and Yang Zhao.

For further information and photographs, please visit rolexmentorprotege.com/press.