Rolex Announces Protégés for 2016-2017 Mentor & Protégé Arts Initiative

Rolex's Mentor and Protégé Arts Initiative began pairing masters of different artistic disciplines with protégés in 2002. Since, 50 emerging and talented artists have had the benefit of establishing a working relationship with artists at the top of their fields. 

Director Alfonso Cuarón and Protégé Chaitanya Tamhane (photo: Rolex/©Rolex/Audoin Desforges)

Rolex just released the names of the protégés selected for their 2016-2017 program. I listed the mentors for this cycle in a previous post. They include Mexican director Alfonso Cuarón, photographed above with his protégé Chaitanya Tamhane of India.

2016 Protégé, Discipline and Country of Origin

Simon Kretz, Architecture, Switzerland

Londiwe Khoza, Dance, South Africa

Chaitanya Tamhane, Film, India

Julián Fuks, Literature, Brazil

Pauchi Sasaki, Music, Peru

Matías Umpierrez, Theater, Argentina

Thao-Nguyen Phan, Visual Art, Vietnam

Mentors and protégés will be paired for a minimum of six weeks over the next year to work together and present their accomplishments at Rolex Arts Weekend at the end of the mentoring period. Each protégé receives 25,000 Swiss francs during the mentorship and an additional 25,000 to show work after the mentor year.

Vietnamese multimedia artist Thao-Nguyen Phan was chosen by visual artist Joan Jonas. “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. The pair is photographed below by Robert Wright. 

Thao-Nguyen Phan and Joan Jonas (photo: Rolex / Robert Wright)

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