Wallpaper 5

‘At irst he was very quiet,’ says pioneering theatre

director Robert Lepage of his protégé, the Argentine

multidisciplinary artist Matías Umpierrez. ‘He just sat

and watched everything going on in my rehearsals.

Then he started asking questions.’ Umpierrez watched

Lepage at work on his latest production at New York’s

Metropolitan Opera, as well as in his one-man show,

887 , in Asia, Europe and the US. ‘He treated me as if we

were on the same level,’ Umpierrez says, ‘and eventually

I felt able to ask him to perform in one of my pieces.’

The result, Imperio, is a gender-reversed retelling of

Macbeth. ‘I found myself in the awkward position of

being directed by my protégé,’ says Lepage. ‘It was

a surprise to see how masterful he was. Working with

him has been like dipping into the fountain of youth.’

Theatre

Robert Lepage

Matías Umpierrez

2004 – 2005

DAVID HOCKNEY, UK

MATTHIAS WEISCHER, GERMANY

2006 – 2007

JOHN BALDESSARI, US

ALEJANDRO CESARCO, URUGUAY

2010 – 2011

ANISH KAPOOR, UK

NICHOLAS HLOBO, SOUTH AFRICA

2008 – 2009

REBECCA HORN, GERMANY

2012 – 2013 MASANORI HANDA, JAPAN

WILLIAM KENTRIDGE, SOUTH AFRICA

MATEO LÓPEZ, COLOMBIA

2002 – 2003

ÁLVARO SIZA, PORTUGAL

SAHEL AL HIYARI, JORDAN

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