THE WATERMILL CENTER HONORS ROBERT WILSON’S LEGACY WITH 2026 “LIMITLESS TIME” SUMMER FESTIVAL
The Watermill Center will pay tribute to its late founder Robert Wilson with “LIMITLESS TIME,” a two-day Summer Festival presented by Van Cleef & Arpels on July 24–25, 2026. The annual benefit marks the first Summer Festival following Wilson’s passing in 2025 and celebrates the artist, director, and playwright whose interdisciplinary practice transformed contemporary performance and helped shape generations of artists through the institution he founded in 1992.
Bringing together leading voices from performance, music, theater, dance, and visual art, the festival reflects Wilson’s lifelong commitment to artistic collaboration across disciplines. Original performances will feature pioneering musician and artist Laurie Anderson alongside Shane Weeks and members of the Shinnecock Nation, a new 200-piece cymbal composition by Japanese musician EYE, and a new choreographic work by Los Angeles-based artist Madeline Hollander inspired by the visual language of “Einstein on the Beach.” Additional performances include Ruth Childs and Cécile Bouffard’s “Delicate People,” works featuring Isabelle Huppert, Christopher Knowles, and Lucinda Childs, as well as restagings of Pina Bausch’s “Nelken Line” (1982) and Robert Wilson and Lucinda Childs’ “I Was Sitting On My Patio This Guy Appeared I Thought I Was Hallucinating” (1977), newly interpreted by Charles Chemin.
The festival also marks a significant anniversary in Wilson’s career. Saturday, July 25, 2026 falls exactly fifty years after the premiere of “Einstein on the Beach” at the Festival d’Avignon on July 25, 1976. Wilson’s landmark collaboration with composer Philip Glass and choreographer Lucinda Childs became one of the defining works of twentieth-century experimental theater, challenging traditional approaches to opera through its unconventional structure, movement, and visual language.
“At the crossroads between continuity and reinvention, LIMITLESS TIME reflects the intemporality of the creative gesture and fosters the dialogue across time between Robert Wilson’s vision and artists from different generations,” said Charles Chemin, the newly appointed Artistic Director of The Watermill Center. “Reflecting this approach, we are highlighting established collaborators who have both influenced and been inspired by Wilson, in addition to emerging artists from diverse fields including dance, music, theatre, visual arts, and contemporary circus.”
Wilson’s influence extended far beyond the stage. Over a career spanning more than six decades, he collaborated with artists including Philip Glass, Lucinda Childs, Laurie Anderson, Tom Waits, Lou Reed, David Byrne, Susan Sontag, Jessye Norman, Marina Abramović, and Lady Gaga, while directing productions for institutions including the Metropolitan Opera, La Scala, and the Bolshoi. His visual art has been exhibited internationally at venues including the Centre Pompidou, the Louvre, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Modern Art, and the Whitney Museum of American Art.
Founded by Wilson in 1992 on Long Island’s East End, The Watermill Center was conceived as an interdisciplinary laboratory where artists could experiment across disciplines. Today, the organization has supported more than 1,600 artists from over 90 countries through its residency program, public programming, and international network of creative practitioners. Proceeds from the Summer Festival will directly support these ongoing initiatives.
The celebration begins on Friday, July 24 with an intimate Artist Dinner bringing together artists, performers, musicians, actors, patrons, and Watermill’s artists-in-residence. On Saturday, July 25, the festival expands into a large-scale benefit welcoming approximately 800 guests for an evening of site-specific performances, installations, cocktails, a grazing dinner, and an after-party with a special musical guest yet to be announced. Alongside the headline program, thirty multidisciplinary artists representing eighteen countries will present installations and performances throughout The Watermill Center’s ten-acre campus.
Presented by Van Cleef & Arpels, “LIMITLESS TIME” reflects The Watermill Center’s ongoing commitment to experimental performance and interdisciplinary collaboration while celebrating the enduring legacy of Robert Wilson—an artist whose influence continues to resonate across contemporary theater, visual art, music, dance, and design.
For more info and to purchase tickets, visit The Watermill Center’s website.
