Robert Wilson may be the most prolific and influential artist of our generation. Perhaps best known for his groundbreaking opera, “Einstein on the Beach,” a collaboration with composer Philip Glass, Wilson is a theater director, producer, designer, choreographer, performer, architect, furniture maker, videographer and sculptor.  When I asked him recently how he defines himself, he said, “I simply say I am an artist.”  Indeed.

I had the good fortune to meet Robert Wilson, a native Texan and former UT student, in New York about 15 years ago when he served as a judge for a philanthropy award with which I was involved. How thrilled I was then to have met such a visionary and how thrilled I was recently to learn that he would be in Austin this month as the Blanton Museum of Art’s 2011 gala honoree.  Given the coup it is to have this award-winning, international artist in our city, I had to ask for an audience with Robert Wilson.

Robert, you have collaborated with so many other great artists and visionaries during your career. Why do you enjoy collaborative work so much?
I like collaborating with other people because my work changes. If I am working with a text from William Burroughs, it is one thing. If it is a text by Heiner Muller, it is another. The same with Chekhov and Shakespeare and with Allen Ginsberg and Susan Sontag. The same is true with composers, whether it is Mozart or Philip Glass or Tom Waits or Lou Reed or Rufus Wainwright or Laurie Anderson. My work is always different because of the collaborators.

Which young, contemporary artist would you most like to collaborate with?
I am working with a young composer from Frankfurt, Germany, who takes natural sounds and manipulates them. He plucks tree branches and records the sounds of insects and birds and transcribes them.  I am going to collaborate with him on a piece for a festival in the northern part of Holland, on the island of Terschelling. His sound world is totally new and different from any of the others with whom I have collaborated. I find this challenging and exciting. I am also interested in the work of Bjork. I would like to work with her on something. And the German visual artist, Jonathan Meese.  

You grew up in Waco, Texas.  How did your life there influence your work as an artist?
The landscape of Texas is in all my work. It is the light and the space that influenced my artistic sensibility.
 
Who were/are your artistic mentors?
George Balanchine and the New York City Ballet, Merce Cunningham, John Cage and Raymond Andrews, a 13-year-old deaf mute boy with whom I collaborated on my first play. Christopher Knowles, another 13-year-old boy who was diagnosed as autistic and lived 11 years in an institution for brain-damaged children, is another. I continue to collaborate with him today.

What is the state of experimental theater today?
What’s most interesting for me is what is beginning to happen in performance art, the crossover of performers working with film, video, architecture, sculpture, visual art. From what I can tell, much is happening in Berlin, Moscow, Shanghai, Beijing and Taipei. And with very young kids in video art in Java. I find the art of video artists in American very interesting as well.

Can you tell me a bit about your current projects?
I am creating a work for the Berliner Ensemble with Lou Reed. I also have a new work for the Manchester International Festival, with music by Antony of Antony and the Johnsons, called “The Life and Death of Marina Abramovic,” who is not dead and will be performing in the work.

What themes are you reflecting on today that we might see in future works?
I have started a collaboration with the Michael Otto Foundation, working on issues of water conservation and how the arts can draw attention to this important field. Also, there is a collaboration with the Sackler family, bringing together artists and scientists to discuss and consider the idea of self and the wellspring of creativity where new thoughts and new ideas in art and science come from. And I have also begun a collaboration with a group from MIT that is working to develop robots that can help blind and visually-impaired people have the experience of sight. 

Einstein once said that if he could live his life over again, he’d rather be a plumber. What would you be?

A potter. 

How does it feel to be coming to Austin as the 2011 Blanton Gala honoree?
It is very nice to be home!

Gala Lumiere: The 2011 Blanton Museum Gala Honoring the Sublime Vision of Robert Wilson will take place on January 29. For tickets, email gala@blantonmuseum.org.  In addition, an exhibition of prints that Wilson produced while at UT as a visiting artist runs through March 13 at the Blanton. For more information, visit www.blantonmuseum.org