His encounters during his travels

1. Does "his encounters" in this context mean his meeting with different people"?

2. Does "he increasingly distanced himself from the idea of a singular producer of an artwork" here mean "he started to try collaborative art making" or "he started to try other works than art making"?

Context:

After he made his reputation showing his art with the Arte Povera artists in Turin and Genoa, Boetti became a world traveler in the 1970s, and journeyed to Afghanistan, Pakistan, Ethiopia, and Guatemala, among other destinations. Perhaps in conjunction with his encounters during his travels and due to his involvement with conceptual art, he increasingly distanced himself from the idea of a singular producer of an artwork. He entered into numerous collaborations, particularly in Kabul, Afghanistan. One such collaboration was his acquisition and opening of the One Hotel there in 1971, with the help of a local assistant, Gholam Dastaghir; the agreement was that Boetti could have the best room there whenever he traveled to Kabul.