Peter Zumthor named as architecture mentor for Rolex Arts Initiative 2014-2015

Swiss architect Peter Zumthor was announced last week as the architecture mentor for the Rolex Arts Initiative, where seven major artists in their respective fields will collaborate with seven young, emerging talents for the year 2014-2015.

Zumthor won the Pritzker Prize in 2009 and is internationally recognized for his masterful use of light and materials in his buildings. He was also recently commissioned by the Los Angeles County Museum of Art to replace some of the museum's current structures with a new solar-powered building.

More details on the Rolex Arts Initiative can be found below.

From the Rolex press release:

"The Rolex Mentor and Protégé Arts Initiative today announced the seven celebrated artists, working around the globe, who will mentor seven young artists in 2014-2015.

The master artists, who will spend a year in creative collaboration and exchange with an emerging talent in their respective fields, are: Olafur Eliasson (visual arts), Alejandro González Iñárritu (film), Michael Ondaatje (literature), Alexei Ratmansky (dance), Kaija Saariaho (music), Jennifer Tipton (theatre), and Peter Zumthor (architecture).

'These artists are all highly respected leaders in their fields,' said Rebecca Irvin, head of philanthropy at Rolex. 'We are grateful that they have generously offered to nurture a new generation of artists. Over the past 11 years, we have seen remarkable, enduring collaborations and friendships form between mentors and protégés. We look forward to seeing more of this rich creative dialogue.'

[...]

The Rolex Arts Initiative has already begun a global search to identify the new protégés. Expert, international nominating panels of influential artists and professionals in each of the disciplines have met to identify and invite young talents to submit applications. Each panel will then recommend three candidates, from whom the mentor will choose his or her protégé. The protégés will be announced in mid-2014 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 protégé. The individual pair will determine the structure, time and place of those meetings. In the past, some protégés have chosen to move to their mentors’ cities to allow for more sustained interactions, while others have conducted their relationship by phone and email with regular visits to each other’s homes, studios, movie sets or rehearsal rooms. Each protégé receives 25,000 Swiss francs to support his or her participation in the programme. At the conclusion of the mentoring year, each protégé is eligible for an additional 25,000 Swiss francs for the creation of a new work."

For more info and updates, click here.

Image courtesy of Rolex Arts Initiative.