Artists descend for feast
ONE of the most hotly anticipated arts events starts early next month and bookings have opened for this cultural feast.
Opening on February 8 at the Baxter, the Rolex Arts Weekend will see over 200 top artists and cultural personalities, global and South African, gather to discuss and showcase a plethora of performances, exhibitions and world launches of diverse and innovative works.
This two-day event highlights the work of the 2018-2019 protégés of the Rolex Mentor and Protégé Arts Initiative together with their mentors.
The Baxter’s chief executive and artistic director, Lara Foot, a former protégée in the 2004−2005 series, says, “To be able to host the 2020 Rolex Arts Weekend is an honour for me personally and for the Baxter.
“This is certainly one of the most distinguished and vital international programmes for young artists. As the years go by, I find that my yearand-a half with (theatre great) Sir Peter Hall, nearly 15 years ago, has become richer and more meaningful.
As I become more of a mentor and my writing evolves and I take on bigger challenges with directing, I find that the time with my mentor becomes more recent. So, in a sense it never really finished, it never really ended.”
This year the weekend is being curated by Fruzsina Szép, the Hungarian-born Festival and Artistic Director of Lollapalooza Berlin. Szép also served in helping to identify suitable potential protégés for the programme in 2018−2019.
The festival was inspired by Rolex founder Hans Wilsdorf, with the Rolex Mentor and Protégé Arts Initiative created in 2002. The international programme seeks out gifted young artists in a variety of disciplines from around the world and pairs them with artistic masters for a period of mentoring and creative collaboration.
Of the plethora of choices available, attendees can look forward to all arts disciplines being represented: dance, architecture, literature, music and cinema. Saturday will be devoted to dance and architecture, while Sunday is dedicated to literature and music.
The weekend will start on Saturday morning with a symposium entitled Who is Unrepresented in the Arts Today? The Arts in Times of Polarisation.
Professor Homi K Bhabha, will lead the discussions with Foot, Annemarie Jacir, Anish Kapoor, Yo Yo Ma and Wole Soyinka. In addition the world premiere of When the Night
Comes will be showcased.
On Sunday another symposium featuring William Kentridge, Tracy K Smith, Julie Taymor, Stephen Frears and Robert Wilson, looks at Other Muses: Inspirations from Elsewhere.
Winding up Sunday’s events, Marcus Gilmore, a young drummer from the US, presents the world premiere of his composition, Pulse. Combining ensemble and the spoken word, it includes an innovative exchange between Gilmore and former Rolex literature protégé 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 there’ll be a discussion between Gilmore and his mentor, Zakir Hussain.
Booking is through Webtickets, online at www.webtickets.co.za, or at Pick n Pay stores. Ticket prices are R100 throughout and R50 for students.
All proceeds will go the Baxter’s Zabalaza Theatre Festival.