Rolex Announces Six Distinguished International Artists as Mentors in the Rolex Mentor and Protege Arts Initiative

NEW YORK, Nov. 14, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- The Rolex Mentor and Protege Arts Initiative has announced the names of the six internationally recognized master artists who will serve as mentors in dance, film, literature, music, theatre and visual arts in 2012-2013.

The mentors, each of whom will select a talented young artist for a year of creative dialogue and exchange, are: Canadian author Margaret Atwood, French theatre director Patrice Chereau, Brazilian singer/songwriter Gilberto Gil, South African visual artist William Kentridge, Taiwanese choreographer Lin Hwai-min and American film editor and sound designer Walter Murch.

The names were announced last night at a Rolex Arts Initiative ceremony at New York City's Lincoln Center hosted by Bertrand Gros, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Rolex SA.

Like the 29 outstanding artists who have already served as mentors in the program, the 2012-2013 mentors have won worldwide respect for their creative achievements:

Dance: Hailed as Asia's premier choreographer, Lin Hwai-min has pioneered Chinese contemporary dance since founding the Cloud Gate Dance Theatre of Taiwan nearly 40 years ago. His amalgamation of styles prompted the New York Times to comment: "Lin Hwai-min has succeeded brilliantly in fusing dance techniques and theatrical concepts from the East and the West."

Film: Universally acknowledged as a master in his field, Walter Murch is revered for his work as a film editor and sound designer, a term that he coined. "I tend not to visualize but auralize, to think about sound in terms of space," says Murch who has helped shape many of the iconic films of the last four decades, including The Godfather series and The English Patient.

Literature: Margaret Atwood – novelist, poet, essayist and literary critic – is a dominant figure in Canadian letters and one of the most esteemed and prolific writers of our time. Called a "scintillating wordsmith" by The Economist, she has written more than 50 volumes.

Music: Legendary singer, songwriter and guitarist Gilberto Gil is one of Brazil's most influential musicians. Known for his musical innovation and melodic richness, Gil has released 52 albums, five of them platinum and 12 of them gold, and sold more than four million records.

Theatre: French director Patrice Chereau is heralded for his wide-ranging theatre, film and opera productions that delve deeply into human relationships. "Directing these different media is about the same thing – telling stories," he says.

Visual Arts: A visual artist whose creativity has led him to other media, William Kentridge is acclaimed for his compelling work that meshes the personal and political influences on his life in South Africa during and after apartheid. "I am interested in a political art ... an art of ambiguity, contradiction, uncompleted gestures and uncertain endings," says Kentridge.

The Rolex Arts Initiative has already begun a worldwide search to find the new proteges. Expert, international nominating panels of influential artists and professionals in each of the disciplines have met to identify and invite young talents from around the globe to submit applications. Each panel will then recommend three candidates in their discipline, from whom the mentor will choose his or her protege. The proteges will be announced in mid-2012 and the mentoring year will begin soon afterwards.

Each mentor will spend at least six weeks, over the course of a year, with his or her protege. The individual pair will determine the structure, time and place of those meetings. In the past, some proteges have chosen to move to their mentors' cities to allow for more sustained interactions, while others have decided to conduct their relationship by phone and email with regular visits to each other's homes, studios, movie sets or rehearsal rooms. Each protege receives $25,000 to support his or her participation in the program. At the conclusion of the mentoring year, each protege is eligible for an additional $25,000 for the creation of a new work.

Since Rolex founded the Arts Initiative a decade ago, some of the world's most distinguished artists have served as mentors. These acclaimed masters are: John Baldessari, Tahar Ben Jelloun, Trisha Brown, Sir Colin Davis, Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker, Brian Eno, Hans Magnus Enzensberger, William Forsythe, Stephen Frears, Sir Peter Hall, David Hockney, Rebecca Horn, Anish Kapoor, Jiri Kylian, Toni Morrison, Mira Nair, Youssou N'Dour, Jessye Norman, Martin Scorsese, Peter Sellars, Alvaro Siza, Wole Soyinka, Julie Taymor, Saburo Teshigawara, Kate Valk, Mario Vargas Llosa, Robert Wilson, Zhang Yimou, and Pinchas Zukerman.

Short biographies of the six mentors and further information about the Rolex Arts Initiative are available at rolexmentorprotege.com.

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