The Watermill Center, an interdisciplinary space in Watermill, New York founded by Robert Wilson, has appointed Charles Chemin as artistic director.
According to the release, Chemin will take over the artistic vision for the organization, effectively succeeding Wilson, who selected Chemin for the role before his death in August 2025. Chemin will work with Watermill’s managing director Elise Herget and curator Noah Khoshbin.
Chemin first collaborated with Wilson in 1992, the same year the late director and playwright founded Watermill. This relationship led Chemin to direct his own productions independently – he went on to stage productions at the Teatro National de la Pergola (Florence), Opéra Avignon, Théâtre de la Ville (Paris), the Biennale de l’Performance (New York), and others. He also returned to Watermill beginning in 2009, co-directing projects with Wilson including Mary Said, Pessoaand Clapp’s last tape.
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“In those (early) years we were studying and rehearsing, developing the next play we were going to do,” Cheming told art news in a recent interview. “It was very much like a factory or a laboratory at the time, and that’s the ethos we’ve kept.”
“Charles is uniquely prepared to lead the Water Mill Center forward,” said William Campbell, chairman of the Water Mill Board of Trustees. art news in a statement. “His deep understanding of Robert Wilson’s vision, coupled with his own artistic rigor, ensures that the Center will continue to flourish as a space for experimentation, interdisciplinary dialogue, and global collaboration.”
Since its inception, Watermill has also welcomed a variety of artists to display their experimental work there, and Chemin plans to continue to do so. “It was from the spirit of that era that we grew and evolved to welcome more other artists,” he said. “We try to create an environment that welcomes artists from all fields and all backgrounds. That aspect has been there from the beginning.”
Since 2020, Chemin has also served as Artistic Director of the organization’s International Summer Programs, a role he took on to help plan for Watermill’s future following Wilson’s death.
“Robert Wilson’s vision is always with us,” Chemin said. “Even after his death, there is a continuity. Wilson’s vision was very much at the center of it, but at the same time, he turned completely towards other artists and even more towards the evolution of tomorrow’s contemporary artists.”
He added, “Wilson was a poet of the stage and the visual arts. He left us something: emotion, a foundation, a vision that we could expand on and create our own.”
