Mentors & Protégés 2017

Robert Lepage & Matías Umpierrez

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.”

Robert Lepage

The Mentor

Demonstrating a virtuosity in every type of theatre craft, French Canadian Robert Lepage has made his mark as an equally talented theatre, opera and film director, playwright and actor whose multimedia, often-bilingual and avant-garde work has captivated audiences worldwide.

Passionate about theatre early on, following his studies at the Conservatoire d’art dramatique de Québec and a year of internship with Alain Knapp in Paris, Lepage began shaking up classical stage direction at Quebec’s Théâtre Repère. He soon gained an international reputation, first with the six-hour-long Dragons’ Trilogy (1985) and then as Artistic Director of the Théâtre français at the National Arts Centre in Ottawa (1989–1993).

Lepage founded his multidisciplinary production company, Ex Machina, in 1994, and began producing a steady output of plays such as The Seven Streams of the River Ota (1994) and, from 1997, at La Caserne, his production centre in Quebec City, mould-breaking productions such as his solos The Far Side of the Moon (2000), The Andersen Project (2005) and 887 (2015), which he wrote, directed and performed in many cities from Tokyo to London.

Concurrently, since the early 1990s, Lepage has gained renown in cinema and opera. He appeared in the film Jésus de Montréal (1988), directed Le Confessionnal (1995) and, from 2010–2012, famously directed Wagner’s Ring Cycle at the Metropolitan Opera. In June 2015 he staged The Tempest opera in Vienna and the following year a new production of Kaija Saariaho’s L’amour de loin, also at the Met. Equally known for his direction of rock shows, circuses and exhibits, he has designed a permanent Cirque du Soleil show, KÀ (2005), in Las Vegas; and for Quebec City’s 400th anniversary, he created The Image Mill (2008), the largest-ever architectural projection.

Lepage’s work has been recognized by many awards such as the Governor General’s Performing Arts Award (2009), the distinguished Prix Europe (2007), the Glenn Gould Prize (2014) and Quebec’s 2015 Compagnon des arts et des lettres.

Matías Umpierrez

The Protégé

For over a decade, Matías Umpierrez has been gaining recognition in his native Argentina and beyond with his experimental, “neo-technological” works that combine theatre, visual arts and cinema. His projects have been presented in different cities around the world and in unconventional spaces such as train stations, food factories, forests, theatres, cinemas and museums.

Umpierrez’s acclaimed global performance intervention, TeatroSOLO (LONEtheater), which actively involves the spectator, was followed by Distancia (Distance), a virtual play that challenges the limits of theatre with live performances (via streaming) from Hamburg, Paris, New York and Buenos Aires. He showcased his short film, Paisaje (Landscape), as part of the New Directors/New Films programme of the Film Society of Lincoln Center and MoMA (the Museum of Modern Art). His work as an artist complements his work as a curator, developing, curating and programming innovative projects as head of the Theatre Department at the University of Buenos Aires’s cultural center from 2007 to 2014, the year he founded the Festival Internacional de Dramaturgia.

Umpierrez’s latest projects are urban interventions such as dramaHOME and video installations, including The Forest and Constructions. Umpierrez, with input from Rolex mentor Robert Lepage, has been developing a video installation/performance, The Museum of Fiction.

About the Arts Initiative

The Rolex Mentor and Protégé Arts Initiative was created to assist extraordinary, rising artists to achieve their full potential by pairing them with great masters for a year of creative collaboration.