Working With Robert Wilson

By Candice Ferrette

Down Water Mill Towd Road, past the Dutch windmill and to the right, a small, barely visible sign reads, "The Watermill Center."

Up the hill, with inches of mud, parking is limited, but there is plenty of open space for everyone. The center looks as spiritual as the 500 B.C. stones imported from Sumba, Indonesia, that are set in the middle of its six acres of forest, and as efficiently run as Smurf Village.

The center was founded in 1992 by the world-renowned artist and director Robert Wilson and the Byrd Hoffman Foundation as an international, multi-disciplinary institute for the development of new ideas in theater, music, film, dance, and the visual arts.

Summer Workshop

The main building was at one time a Western Union building, stands on the partly developed six acres of land - part mud, part grass - and the center is in the process of extending a wing on either side to house Mr. Wilson's collection of ancient and modern arts and crafts. It will also serve as a laboratory for artistic collaboration.

There are over 70 artists from around the world lurking around the scaffolding of the soon-to-be Watermill Center for Arts and Humanities. They have been invited by Mr. Wilson for the fifth year of his summer workshop for young artists.

They look too busy to be bothered, but in fact don't mind a quick chat as long as you don't call them interns.

"Interns? Is that what we are called these days?" said Brian Block who works in photography and video. "I haven't been an intern for years."

Collaborative Effort

The 30-year-old artist said that all the workshop participants were professionals working in their own medium. Mr. Block, who works with psychological issues and creates what he calls "emotional pornography," said they were in Water Mill not to imitate Mr. Wilson but rather to contribute ideas and share skills.

"One of the interesting things about Bob is that he was a pioneer in a field that was not defined by a medium," Mr. Block added.

Mr. Block said that one-third of the participants at the center work for Mr. Wilson professionally. "It is not a residency like Yaddo," he said, referring to the writers colony in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., where artists work independently on their own projects. "We work for Bob's projects and we grow from observing."

Give And Take

Her first time in America, Carole Fekete's visit to the Hamptons does not mean going to the beach or attending lavish fund-raisers. She sees the summer workshop as a give-and-take opportunity.

"I photograph Bob's chairs for him and I use the prints also for me," said Ms. Fekete, who arrived from Lyon, France, two weeks ago. The collection includes chairs Mr. Wilson acquired from all over the globe, including Indonesia and China.

"I'm still waiting for my materials to come from the city," Ms. Fekete, a svelte 30-year-old, said in a soft voice while munching on a gourmet lunch. "I can't wait to start work."

Something Different

She has been photographing the workshops, doing portraits and other parts of the collection, and has participated in rehearsals for the three performances now in rehearsal at the center, "Aventis," "WlmS," and "Russian Madness."

Now living in one of the six houses the program provides in Sag Harbor, Ms. Fekete said she planned to stay in New York after it concludes, looking for a place in the city, where to hopes to find more job opportunities.

Jan Korle, a student from Hamburg, Germany, who met Mr. Wilson while he was an assistant at the Thalia Theater there, said that the summer program allowed him to work under stage direction that is different that what he learns in Germany.

Fast And Mathematical

"Mr. Wilson is the best light designer in the world," said Mr. Korle, who is studying directing and poetry. "This is something that I wouldn't get in Germany."

Tina Pintev agreed, saying that what she liked about the program was that working with Mr. Wilson was so professional. "Bob works very fast, and he's very mathematical," said the 29-year-old, who graduated in March with a master's in art from the University of Hamburg. "He's really interesting to watch."

Last Thursday, researchers were on the Internet in one room, a fax machine was on overdrive in another, and upstairs Mr. Wilson was meeting with executives from French Vogue designing six pages for the magazine's Christmas issue, with workshop participants like 20-year-old Carlos Soto on hand to watch, listen, and contribute.

Accidental Actor

Mr. Soto has been coming out every summer since 1997. "I was 15 when I first saw Bob's work," said Mr. Soto, who was attending Fordham Preparatory High School in the Bronx when he wrote Mr. Wilson a letter. When the young man received a phone call from Mr. Wilson asking to meet him, they hit it off, and he has worked with him since.

Mr. Soto spent the first semester of his freshman year at the Pratt Institute in SoHo before he left for Italy to rehearse for "The Days Before Death, Destruction and Detroit III," Mr. Wilson's show that premiered at Lincoln Center on July 7.

Having originally enrolled at Pratt with the intention of studying set design, Mr. Soto said he became a performer by accident. "He [Mr. Wilson] works in a way where he doesn't care if you are a performer or not," said Mr. Soto. "He'd rather have a non-performer to work with on stage."

Informal Process

Mr. Soto said he looked forward to the summer programs because they were an opportunity to collaborate with the other artists on Mr. Wilson's projects and to talk about their own projects. He is drafting plans with other artists for a solo performance installation piece they hope to put on in Istanbul.

Although many of the participating artists have traveled from France, Germany, Italy, Greece, Mexico, Denmark, Sweden, Turkey, Argentina, and Austria, a portion of come from across the United States.

"The application process is very informal," said the program's assistant director, Felipe Fernandez. "Bob invites many of the students. It is not publicized."

Input Counts

Mr. Fernandez, who has been working with the summer program for three years, said applicants meet Mr. Wilson and send him their portfolios, and that the pool of applicants probably numbered up to 200.

Carl Manalo, a 21-year-old student at Vanderbilt University in Tennessee, is a double major in organizational development and creative writing and is minoring in studio art. "It is like majoring in everything and nothing all at the same time," Mr. Manalo said about his course of study.

He has roles in three performances, too. "I'm really learning here," he said.

Like the title of the performance they are now rehearsing, which was originally called "21" but has been changed to "Aventis," the artists said, things changed constantly, very often because of their own input.

Also Learning

Mr. Wilson, for his part, said he felt as though he learned a lot, too. "With the dialogue and the exchange that goes on here," he said, "I feel as though I learn more from the young people than they do from me."

The center has seen artists and celebrities from all genres and mediums, including, in the last year, Susan Sontag, Salmon Rushdie, and the businessman Jurgen Doorman.

It will, Mr. Wilson said, "be a center essentially designed for research and understanding." Once completed, he said, it will be open year-round to serve the community.

"Hopefully, it will be here long after I am no longer living," said the artist, who designed the plans with the architect Richard Gluckman.

Pitching In

The program's rigorous schedule keeps participants busy seven days a week, from the 9:30 a.m. meeting that begins the day to dinnertime and activities lasting as late as 11 p.m.

Mr. Soto said participants are somewhat shocked went they arrive and find they are expected to undertake chores such as gardening, cleaning, organizing, and moving furniture. "There is always one person that quits in the first week," he said, adding that it often takes time to realize that "we are living here, and working here, so we need to take care of the space."

There is a certain work ethic and discipline expected of participating artists, he said.

But after the first week of planting, building, and destroying, which they all agreed was "the worst week" of the program, many soon realize that what they are doing at what many call "art camp" is not confined to a single experience.

"You know that this is going to continue," said Mr. Soto, "whether it is in the form of a performance that many run for two years or in the form of the center itself, what is created here lives on."