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Sir David Chipperfield &
Simon Kretz
architecture,
2016 - 2017
Instead of working on a building together, British architecture mentor Sir David Chipperfield and his Swiss protégé Simon Kretz decided on a theoretical project about a complex development site in London. They discovered that
a comparison of planning processes in Switzerland and Britain was fertile ground for a debate about the profound influence planning has on the physical and social form of cities, of how we live and perceive our environment.
The result of their research will appear in a book in 2018.
About the artists
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Peter Zumthor &
Gloria Cabral
architecture,
2014 - 2015
Gloria Cabral, from Asunción in Paraguay, spent weeks at the Swiss studio of her mentor Peter Zumthor, who involved her in the whole process of building a tea chapel in South Korea, opening up her mind “in a radical way”.
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Kazuyo Sejima &
Yang Zhao
architecture,
2012 - 2013
Japanese mentor Kazuyo Sejima and protégé Yang Zhao believe architecture is about more than constructing buildings – it’s about changing lives. They put their conviction into practice with a humanitarian project as Zhao designs
a community gathering place in a tsunami-devastated area.
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Álvaro Siza &
Sahel Al-Hiyari
architecture,
2002 - 2003
For Álvaro Siza, Portugal’s master architect, his profession is not about copying designs of the past. His protégé, Sahel Al-Hiyari, says “with Siza … it’s much deeper than that.” Al-Hiyari explains that “architecture is synonymous
with human existence. It’s one’s second skin.”
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Ohad Naharin &
Londiwe Khoza
dance,
2016 - 2017
Protégée Londiwe Khoza who had trained in classical dance was immersed into Ohad Naharin’s Batsheva Dance Company after she moved to Tel Aviv for the mentoring year. Having never rehearsed without a mirror, she had to redefine
her understanding of dance without using one. Learning to improvise based on Naharin’s dance language Gaga, Khoza says her dancing and her life – physical, emotional and mental – have been transformed. “I can see with Londiwe
that she opened up,” Naharin says. “She learned to be in the moment when she dances. She learned about her instinctive movement.”
About the artists
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Alexei Ratmansky &
Myles Thatcher
dance,
2014 - 2015
Russian-born choreographer Alexei Ratmansky and his protégé Myles Thatcher share a deep respect for the “language” that is classical dance. Both are intensely involved in reinvigorating their art form for the 21st century.
A perfect partnership.
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Lin Hwai-min &
Eduardo Fukushima
dance,
2012 - 2013
Young Brazilian dancer Eduardo Fukushima moves from São Paulo to Taiwan, where his mentor, Asia’s premier choreographer Lin Hwai-min, elaborates his unique philosophy of movement and being. A year with this “very generous person”
has “transformed my life”, Fukushima declares.
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Trisha Brown &
Lee Serle
dance,
2010 - 2011
For young Australian dancer Lee Serle, a year in New York being mentored by one of the world’s greatest choreographers, Trisha Brown, is an opportunity to “go back to the source”, as both mentor and protégé search for originality,
humanity and beauty of movement.
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Jiří Kylián &
Jason Akira Somma
dance,
2008 - 2009
Jason Akira Somma describes himself as “a dance visual artist”, transcending artistic boundaries. In Jiří Kylián he finds not only a mentor, but also a generous “life coach” happy to share a lifetime’s experience. The mentorship,
says Somma, “has absolutely changed my life”.
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Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker &
Anani Dodji Sanouvi
dance,
2006 - 2007
Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker, one of the world’s most distinguished choreographers, says of her protégé, Togolese dancer Anani Dodji Sanouvi, “he is like the sun … he has an energy that is inspiring.” Sanouvi in turn declares
that a year being mentored by De Keersmaeker is the chance of a lifetime.
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Saburo Teshigawara &
Junaid Jemal Sendi
dance,
2004 - 2005
“Rolex has introduced me to the world,” says Ethiopia’s Junaid Jemal Sendi, whose life has been transformed by dance. His mentorship, under leading Japanese choreographer Saburo Teshigawara, takes Sendi to Europe and Japan.
“Now he has just opened his own future door,” says Teshigawara in admiration. “And he wants to go further.”
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William Forsythe &
Sang Jijia
dance,
2002 - 2003
William Forsythe, one of the greatest innovators of modern dance, believes that ballet “shouldn’t be left in the 19th century”. His radical approach finds the perfect protégé in Sang Jijia, a gifted Chinese dancer of Tibetan
origin. “Sang-ba is like unpolluted water,” says Forsythe. “He runs clear.”
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Alfonso Cuarón &
Chaitanya Tamhane
film,
2016 - 2017
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). But 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“. For protégé Chaitanya Tamhane, the
mentorship has provided a faith in his vocation, that no matter the challenges that appear, “What will eventually keep you afloat is your love for what you do.”
About the artists
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Alejandro G. Iñárritu &
Tom Shoval
film,
2014 - 2015
Young Israeli director Tom Shoval’s year of mentoring evolved with the excitement worthy of a Hollywood film script. Shoval spent weeks on the set of Alejandro G. Iñárritu’s film
The Revenant with the Oscar winner revealing all the “infinite possibilities” of film-making.
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Walter Murch &
Sara Fgaier
film,
2012 - 2013
What does a film editor do? Walter Murch, editor of many iconic films, and his protégée, Italian film editor Sara Fgaier, provide succinct descriptions of the complex skill of constructing a feature film, the focus of their
year-long mentorship.
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Zhang Yimou &
Annemarie Jacir
film,
2010 - 2011
For Zhang Yimou, China’s creator of dazzling films, success is not about inspiration but the fruit “of hardships and efforts” as he meticulously masters every single scene. For his protégée Annemarie Jacir, working alongside
him on set and in the editing room as he makes
The Flowers of War, his supreme “visual sense” is the key to his rich and moving stories.
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Martin Scorsese &
Celina Murga
film,
2008 - 2009
For American master of cinema Martin Scorsese, to be a good film director, you need to become part of the world you are filming. His protégée, Argentinean director Celina Murga, does so with passion, he declares, describing
her as a natural film-maker. The admiration is mutual. “Marty’s the perfect mentor,” says Murga.
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Stephen Frears &
Josué Mendez
film,
2006 - 2007
“For a Peruvian to work with [Stephen] Frears, it’s just not possible”, says young Lima film-maker Josué Mendez of the respected British director. But that’s exactly what happens when Frears chooses Mendez as his protégé and
they share the “very precise art” of film-making, with Mendez directing his second full-length feature.
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Mira Nair &
Aditya Assarat
film,
2004 - 2005
When Thai film-maker Aditya Assarat shadows his mentor, Mira Nair, on set as she directs
The Namesake in Kolkata, India, he discovers some of the secrets of her lavish cinematography. “She’s like the host of a party. That goes a lot towards holding the film crew together.” Nair describes it differently:
“It’s about orchestrating chaos,” she says.
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Mia Couto &
Julián Fuks
literature,
2016 - 2017
During the mentoring year a close working friendship developed between writer Mia Couto, from Mozambique, and his Brazilian/Argentinian protégé Julián Fuks that was based on a love of serious literature, and their shared experience
as citizens of countries formerly colonized by Portugal. Couto, who has written more than 30 books, says that “words are always coming at me and just flowing out.” Fuks, by contrast, hesitates over every sentence of his
work. “He is encouraging me to loosen up and let go a bit,” said Fuks, while Couto added: “I am learning from him when to stop.”
About the artists
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Michael Ondaatje &
Miroslav Penkov
literature,
2014 - 2015
Bulgarian protégé Miroslav Penkov could not believe that his mentor was Michael Ondaatje, “someone who stands so tall in a field of giants”. For Ondaatje, author of
The English Patient, “our lives are utterly disordered”, so watching Penkov bring order into life by writing fiction was a source of pleasure.
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Margaret Atwood &
Naomi Alderman
literature,
2012 - 2013
Canada’s grand mistress of fiction Margaret Atwood likens mentoring to door-opening. “We speak the same language,” Atwood says of her protégée, young British author Naomi Alderman. Their relationship even extends to writing
a zombie novella together.
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Hans Magnus Enzensberger &
Tracy K. Smith
literature,
2010 - 2011
In a mentorship that they describe as an intense and joyful conversation, poets Hans Magnus Enzensberger (from Germany) and Tracy K. Smith (American) explore the nature of poetry – “Everyone has poetry in their head,” Enzensberger
proclaims. But their quest goes further, examining history and identity as Smith realizes a longstanding desire to write her family memoir.
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Wole Soyinka &
Tara June Winch
literature,
2008 - 2009
Declaring their mentorship to be “a process of development”, Wole Soyinka, first African Laureate of the Nobel Prize for Literature, encourages his protégée, Tara June Winch, as she agonizes over her writing. When anyone writes,
he says, himself included, “it’s all over the place.” It’s the rewriting that follows that marks out a true writer.
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Tahar Ben Jelloun &
Edem Awumey
literature,
2006 - 2007
Moroccan-born and now one of France’s most fêted writers, Tahar Ben Jelloun declares that “literature is not reassuring, it’s disturbing”. Edem, from Togo, writing a novel of “dark nights and ghosts”, was the ideal protégé
to accompany in the challenging process of creating fiction.
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Mario Vargas Llosa &
Antonio García Ángel
literature,
2004 - 2005
“One cannot teach how to write, but one can teach a young writer what not to do when writing a novel,” declares Peru’s Nobel literature laureate, Mario Vargas Llosa. This and many other lessons are the basis of a highly productive
mentorship with his protégé, novelist Antonio García Ángel, from Colombia, who emails his writing to his mentor every week and then engages in a literary critique by telephone.
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Toni Morrison &
Julia Leigh
literature,
2002 - 2003
Nobel literature laureate Toni Morrison is not only a novelist and teacher, she is also an experienced editor – the perfect mentor for young, Australian writer Julia Leigh as she starts on her second novel.
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Philip Glass &
Pauchi Sasaki
music,
2016 - 2017
Composer Philip Glass was able to offer the wisdom of a lifetime to his Peruvian protégée Pauchi Sasaki. Glass was determined to counsel her on the gamut of tasks, strategies and areas of knowledge required for a successful
career as a musican and composer. For Sasaki, a highly accomplished violinist, composer and multimedia performance artist, “every single detail, tells me and teaches me a lot”.
About the artists
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Kaija Saariaho &
Vasco Mendonça
music,
2014 - 2015
Composing music is a solitary occupation. For Finland’s Kaija Saariaho and her protégé, Portugal’s Vasco Mendonça the mentorship delivered a rare opportunity to “enrich” each other discussing music in concert halls around Europe
and in the United States.
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Gilberto Gil &
Dina El Wedidi
music,
2012 - 2013
For Egyptian singer Dina El Wedidi and her mentor, Brazilian music icon Gilberto Gil, differences in culture are not an obstacle to a productive mentorship. Quite the opposite. “She wanted to experience that friction between
Egypt and Brazil,” Gil says.
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Brian Eno &
Ben Frost
music,
2010 - 2011
As they create a track of electronic music during their mentoring year, multimedia artists Brian Eno and Ben Frost reveal the two sides of composition, finding inspiration and analyzing the music they create and how it will
be heard.
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Youssou N’Dour &
Aurelio Martínez
music,
2008 - 2009
A year’s mentorship with Youssou N’Dour gives Aurelio Martínez, from Honduras, not only an opportunity to boost his musical skills and self-confidence in the company of “the icon of African music”, but also to learn more about
the historic and musical background of his African ancestors as he visits N’Dour’s continent for the first time.
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Pinchas Zukerman &
David Aaron Carpenter
music,
2006 - 2007
World-renowned violinist and conductor Pinchas Zukerman says “the fiddle is synonymous with my existence”. He finds the same commitment in his protégé, young American violist David Aaron Carpenter, from the United States.
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Jessye Norman &
Susan Platts
music,
2004 - 2005
Extraordinary soprano Jessye Norman believes that having a good voice is not enough. Every singer must “work” to ensure she communicates the words – in whatever language she is singing – to the audience. Her protégée Susan
Platts fully agrees. It’s about “giving your heart and soul” to the meaning of the text.
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Sir Colin Davis &
Josep Caballé-Domenech
music,
2002 - 2003
One of the world’s greatest conductors, (the late) Sir Colin Davis believed that “you don’t control an orchestra, you are allowing things to happen.” Preparation and a deep cultural sense are what a conductor needs – lessons
that Sir Colin instilled into his brilliant protégé, Josep Caballé-Domenech, from Spain.
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Robert Lepage &
Matías Umpierrez
theatre,
2016 - 2017
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 – made him the ideal protégé for the unique, transdisciplinary director Robert Lepage, whose highly original works defy classification. Lepage says of the mentoring year: “We call it mentorship,
but actually it is a dialogue.” Regretting never having had a mentor, Lepage approached his role with generosity and an open mind, saying: “His [Umpierrez’s] opinion is as important as ours.”
About the artists
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Jennifer Tipton &
Sebastián Solórzano Rodríguez
theatre,
2014 - 2015
Jennifer Tipton, one of the world’s greatest lighting designers, declares that “light is the substance of our existence”. Her protégé, Mexico’s Sebastián Solórzano Rodríguez, agrees completely as he witnessed Tipton creating
lighting for performances at theatres and opera houses all over the world.
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Patrice Chéreau &
Michał Borczuch
theatre,
2012 - 2013
The late French director Patrice Chéreau described himself as “a slave to the text”. His protégé Michał Borczuch takes the opposite approach, with an “anarchistic” style of direction. “I wasn’t interested in somebody who was
doing something similar to me,” Chéreau said.
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Peter Sellars &
Maya Zbib
theatre,
2010 - 2011
With a live performance and both Chicago and Beirut as the backdrop, Peter Sellars and Maya Zbib give surprising – and very different – explanations of the nature of art, as well as describing each other, their mentorship and
how to change the world.
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Kate Valk &
Nahuel Perez Biscayart
theatre,
2008 - 2009
Argentinian actor Nahuel Perez Biscayart shifts to New York to spend a year with his mentor, Kate Valk, a founding member of the Wooster Group. There he finds that inspiration comes as a result of producing, trying, failing
and finding the beauty in accidents.
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Julie Taymor &
Selina Cartmell
theatre,
2006 - 2007
Julie Taymor, famous for creating spectacular theatre, film and opera, wanted to mentor “someone I can have a dialogue with”. She found her in British director Selina Cartmell, for whom the mentorship is an ideal opportunity
for the rare privilege of watching another director at work as Taymor creates a new opera,
Grendel.
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Sir Peter Hall &
Lara Foot
theatre,
2004 - 2005
Under the subtle and experienced eye of the late British director Sir Peter Hall, his protégée, South Africa’s Lara Foot, directs a play – that she also wrote – exposing a taboo subject in her country. “South Africa is a country
of contradictions,” she says, and these contradictions lend themselves to brilliant theatre, as Lara Foot demonstrates.
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Robert Wilson &
Federico León
theatre,
2002 - 2003
Mentoring “is not learning in the conventional sense. It’s really the idea of interacting. Two artists meet and interact,” says gifted Argentinean director Federico León of his year of collaborating with his mentor, the legendary
director and artist Robert Wilson.
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Joan Jonas &
Thao-Nguyen Phan
visual arts,
2016 - 2017
New-York based performance and video artist 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.” Moved by Jonas’s “extraordinary power to reinvent, being so groundbreaking from one work to the next”, protégée Thao-Nguyen Phan described meeting Jonas “as something
like destiny”, a “lasting relationship… For my career, the programme has been a very immense support.”
About the artists
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Olafur Eliasson &
Sammy Baloji
visual arts,
2014 - 2015
For Sammy Baloji, who had mainly worked in photography, immersion in the life and work of mentor and multimedia artist Olafur Eliasson brought a transformation, enriching his work and bringing a greater complexity of language
as he discovered new materials and modes of expression.
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William Kentridge &
Mateo López
visual arts,
2012 - 2013
Visual arts protégé Mateo López is, thanks to his architecture background, “incredibly precise”, says mentor William Kentridge. In his Johannesburg studio, Kentridge pushes his protégé out of his “comfort zone”, helping him
to develop a more spontaneous approach to creativity.
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Anish Kapoor &
Nicholas Hlobo
visual arts,
2010 - 2011
In a mentorship that is a process, rather than a collaboration on a joint work, Nicholas Hlobo’s art, which springs from many hours of precise handicraft, is contrasted with the monumental pieces created by his mentor Anish
Kapoor, that seem “to be made by the gods”.
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Rebecca Horn &
Masanori Handa
visual arts,
2008 - 2009
Two enigmatic visual artists, Rebecca Horn and Masanori Handa, from very different countries, Germany and Japan, quickly develop a strong friendship and a mutual admiration for each other’s category-defying work. Communication
during their mentorship is not confined to language – drawing together enables them to boost their joint creativity.
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John Baldessari &
Alejandro Cesarco
visual arts,
2006 - 2007
Renowned American conceptual artist John Baldessari believes that “art is more than just painting”. His mentorship of Alejandro Cesarco (from Uruguay) is an intense collaboration that combines visuals, text, irony and humour
in the creation of a new work of art.
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David Hockney &
Matthias Weischer
visual arts,
2004 - 2005
“I’ve never done any teaching,” says David Hockney, Britain’s most famous living artist. He agreed to be a mentor in the hope he would not only teach, but also learn. Traveling and painting with his protégé, Germany’s Matthias
Weischer, Hockney says, “I’ve got a new friend, a young painter. A good teacher learns from pupils.”
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Álvaro Siza &
Sahel Al-Hiyari
visual arts,
2002 - 2003
For Álvaro Siza, Portugal’s master architect, his profession is not about copying designs of the past. His protégé, Sahel Al-Hiyari, says “with Siza … it’s much deeper than that.” Al-Hiyari explains that “architecture is synonymous
with human existence. It’s one’s second skin.”
Discover more
