What to expect from the 2020 Rolex Arts Weekend
The Rolex Arts Weekend will take place at the Baxter Theatre Centre in Cape Town on 8 and 9 February 2020. Over 200 renowned artists and arts leaders are expected to attend the event.
The Arts Weekend, a series of public events – which includes talks, readings, exhibitions and performances, including two world premieres – will feature the work of the 2018−2019 protégés of the Rolex Mentor and Protégé Arts Initiative with their mentors. Rolex arts initiative mentors Sir David Adjaye, Zakir Hussain, Crystal Pite and Colm Tóibín will join their protégés at the event.
The two-day celebration is the culmination of the current cycle of the programme, which pairs master artists with emerging artists in several disciplines for a period of creative exchange in a one-to-one mentoring relationship.
Through these various events, the protégés will demonstrate the insights they learned from their mentors over the course of the mentoring period. This interchange between generations is integral to Rolex’s dedication to passing on knowledge, in this case, perpetuating excellence in the arts.
The Rolex Arts Weekend is being curated this year by Fruzsina Szép, the Hungarian-born festival and artistic director of Lollapalooza Berlin who also served as an Arts Initiative nominator, helping to identify suitable potential protégés for the programme in 2018−2019.
Highlights of the arts weekend
Dance
The opening event is a world premiere by Senegalese protégée Khoudia Touré, a pioneer in urban street dance, with three members of the dance company, Compagnie La Mer Noire. The production was created following Touré’s close interaction with her mentor, Canadian choreographer Crystal Pite, who will introduce the dance, When the night comes, a piece born from hip-hop and infused with other dance styles and techniques.
Literature
Under the tutelage of mentor Colm Tóibín, fellow Irishman and protégé Colin Barrett completed his first novel, The English Brothers. An adapted extract from the book that features the two writers’ mutual fascination with questions of belonging and self-definition will be performed by local actors in advance of a discussion – “What Can be Said: Home and Voice” – between mentor and protégé.
Architecture
Protégée Mariam Kamara, originally from Niger, and mentor Ghanaian-born British architect Sir David Adjaye will present their plans for a new cultural centre in Niamey, Niger’s capital. The discussion, moderated by Ghanaian-Scottish architect Lesley Lokko, will be followed by the official opening of the exhibition, Public realm along the Niger River, Niamey.
Arts symposium
Attendees will also have the opportunity to hear international artists debating the role of culture in society and the interdisciplinary nature of their work in two separate panel discussions led by Prof. Homi Bhabha of Harvard University. They are entitled, respectively: “Sister-Arts and Other Muses: Influences and Confluences in the Making of Art” and “Against the Grain: The Arts in Times of Polarization”.
Music
Music protégé Marcus Gilmore, an innovative young drummer from the United States, will present a world premiere of his composition, pulse, commissioned by the American Composers Orchestra. The composition for ensemble and the spoken word will include an exciting exchange between Gilmore and former Rolex literature protégée Tracy K Smith. Gilmore will perform the work with musicians from the Cape Town Philharmonic Orchestra and its resident conductor Brandon Phillips. Following the performance and a solo by Gilmore, the protégé and his mentor Zakir Hussain will discuss their mentoring experience.
Arts weekend cinema
In addition to the symposiums and the mentor-protégé events, an Arts Weekend Cinema event at the Baxter’s Golden Arrow Studio will feature films about the Rolex Arts Initiative, as well as past and current mentors and protégés.
For more information about the Rolex Arts Initiative, go to www.rolex.org/rolex-mentor-protege.
