62 > qatar today > october 2013

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Waking up to a neW daWn

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It cannot get better than this for a country that hopes to move the cul-tural centre of gravity away from the West and earlier hotspots in Damas-cus and Cairo to its shores.

This month the Qatar Museums Authority (QMA) will be bringing four en-tirely different collections to the people of the country.

One will have on display the most valu-able memories and paraphernalia of a Hajj pilgrim, while another will have, among other exhibits, a formaldehyde preserva-tion of a dead shark in a clear glass case.

One is “Hajj: The Journey Through Art”, which will be on display from October 9 to January 5, 2014 and celebrates the holy pilgrimage, with the majority of items on display coming from the collections of the Museum of Islamic Art, some of which have never before been displayed in public.

Another of the exhibitions is “Relics”, the first exhibition by Damien Hirst in the Mid-dle East, and reportedly the largest exhibi-tion to date by Britain’s wealthiest artist.

Other exhibitions, equally prolific, are Adel Abdessemed’s solo exhibition curated by Pier Luigi Tazzi at Mathaf from October 6 to January, 5, 2014 and Francesco Vez-

zoli’s “Museum of Crying Women” at the QMA Gallery, Katara from October 7 to No-vember 30, 2013.

Under the patronage of QMA Chairper-son HE Sheikha Al Mayassa bint Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, Relics will run from October 10 to January 22, 2014 at Al Riwaq exhibition space and will span 25 years of the British artist’s career. It will include both his most iconic work, such as his spot paintings, the formaldehyde animals from his “Human Nature” series and his dia-mond-encrusted skull (“For the Love of God”, 2007), as well as previously unseen work.

Talking exclusively to Qatar Today on this diversity of collections on display, Kimberly French, Chief Marketing Officer at QMA, says: “In Doha, we are fortunate enough to have both a modern art museum, in the form of Mathaf, as well as the Mu-seum of Islamic Art and venues such as Al Riwaq exhibition space. By its very nature, this range of different spaces enables very different exhibitions to be presented at the same time, like the Hajj exhibition, Damien Hirst, Adel Abdessemed and Francesco Vezzoli.”

While Hajj: The Journey Through Art

Four hallmark exhibitions bring the focus of international art enthusiasts’ attention on doha, which is touted to be the next cultural hub of the region.By Sindhu nair

JuXtapoSedleft, from Hajj exhibition, Magnetism by ahmed Mater, magnets and iron fillings, Insert, the Immortal by damien Hirst

64 > qatar today > october 2013

will include historical elements, it will also touch individual viewers by taking them on a memorable route retracing their unique experience during the pilgrimage. With lo-cal Qataris invited to contribute their own stories as recent pilgrims, there will be some contemporary pieces in a show that is sure to attract local and regional fans. So, while one exhibition falls back on religious sentiment to attract viewership, another will use its shocking displays and its inter-national repute to garner attention.

“The exhibitions are in venues appro-priate to the collections. We believe that a variety of art is important not only for the visitor experience but for Doha to be re-flected as an international cultural centre,” says French.

That, in essence, is the very agenda of QMA: “to cultivate a new voice for Qatar for generations to come; our purpose is to be a cultural instigator for creation generation.”

Jean-Paul Engelen, Director of Public Art Programmes at QMA, talks about the widely popular while controversial Damien Hirst exhibition, and whether this exhibi-tion is in Doha for its “shock factor”.

“Damien Hirst is widely regarded as one of the world’s most successful contempo-rary artists and has created some of the most seminal works in recent art history. We hope this exhibition will encourage lo-cal audiences to take part in debates and

discussions about the arts that will chal-lenge their understanding and unveil new perspectives.”

While Doha has been host to a wide range of international exhibitions, the question is whether the local and expat audiences are knowledgeable enough to understand this form of art.

Engelen feels that art can mean some-thing different to everybody, and “we hope each visitor has their own unique experi-ence as the subject matter is universal and translates across all cultures”.

Talking about its plan for the country, the spokesperson says that as of now, the Mu-seum of Islamic Art and MIA Park; Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art; the Al Riwaq exhibition space; and the QMA Gallery at Katara have already been launched.

“In the next few years, we plan on open-ing the National Museum of Qatar, the Olympic and Sports Museum and the Ori-entalist Museum,” says French, “With re-gard to forthcoming museums, we can’t provide a number because the museums are in the planning phase. Some are ideas that will combine collections; others are stand-alone projects that will require their own facility. As projects move out of the plan-ning stage and realise a clear direction, we will announce them. We have a headstart on many aspects of these institutions. Our plans will continue to evolve over the next

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daMIen HIrst

Jean Paul engelen director of Public art, qMa

qatar today > october 2013 > 65

several years and will be announced when we’re ready. Suffice it to say that each of these museums will provide a new version of collecting and service within their genre, as we bring the best talent from around the world to combine with Qatari knowledge and skill.”

Dr Karen Exell, Lecturer in Museum Studies and Coordinator, MA (Museum and Gallery Practice) at UCL Qatar, feels that she is in the right place with all the best things happening right on her doorstep. “It will be interesting to watch the impact of these two exhibitions locally. Damien Hirst will take all the global attention, while local people might prefer the Hajj experience. It is fascinating to see how people will react to these two exhibitions,” she says.

A culture that is growingSpeaking about the burgeoning museum culture in Doha, Dr Exell says that Qatar follows a unique model of acquiring the best skillsets to showcase QMA’s devel-opment plans. “Like bringing in I.M. Pei for the building and the curators from world-renowned institutions for planning exhibits and associations with different au-thorities,” she says.

QMA’s plans could be best described as a local collaboration with a regional focus, which HE Sheikha Al-Mayassa has de-scribed as “a hybrid of local culture and in-

ternational expertise”.Another example of this international

expertise is Edward Dolman, who heads the QMA as its Executive Director and Act-ing CEO. He is from Christie’s International plc, where he served as Chairman from Sep-tember 2010. Dolman had 27 years of expe-rience with Christie’s and brings with him a wealth of experience.

Mathaf, the Arab Museum for Modern Art, which brings the contemporary work of Arab artists into focus, has attracted a lot of attention in the country, especially amongst its youth, by the innovative display of artwork and collections and also through its unique outreach programmes addressed to the entire population.

According to Mathaf Director Dr Abdel-lah Karroum, the country is investing in education and culture for the next genera-tions.

“Doha’s cultural scene is rich, dynamic and diverse; the Arab youth is playing a key role in this transformation. HE Sheikha Al-Mayassa’s ambition for the country, her vision of creating an artistic hub in Qa-tar made, many things possible in a small amount of time, including the opening of two unique museums with rich collec-tions in Qatar: MIA and Mathaf are already opened, and soon the National Museum and Sports Museum will open in Doha,” says Dr Karroum.

KIMberly FrencH chief Marketing officer, qMa

artiFaCtS (clockwise from left) Kitab Kharida al-ajaib wa

farida al-gharayib, al-Marrakshi, 3 safar 983 aH, 14 May 1573, For the love of god by damien Hirst,

believer, butterflies and household gloss on canvas by damien Hirst

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“As part of QMA,” he continues, “our museum responds to its role of producing and sharing knowledge. For us, every new collaboration is a contribution to our grow-ing society. International relations are also important for a museum, and at Mathaf we promote our artists and intellectuals in the global spheres. We co-produce exhibitions and education programmes and have con-tinuous dialogues with Mori Tokyo, MoMA NYC, Tate Modern, MACBA Barcelona and the Tate in the UK. We also interact with biennials and institutions in Asia, the Arab world and Africa.”

But there are sceptics as well. Mayssa Fattouh, Artistic Director and Curator at Katara Art Centre, one of the few inde-pendently-run galleries in the country, feels that the country can never aim to become a production hub. “Having an es-tablished museum study will be extremely beneficial to the country itself first of all, for the development of sustainable strategies and good relations with museums across the world,” she says. “The understanding of purchase ethics, history and social contexts are key in shaping art policies. Having many more museums will make Doha an undeni-able cultural tourism destination, but this is not enough to make it a production hub.”

A gap to be filledIn a country that could be said to have very little art history, one would assume that the best way forward would be to work in tan-dem with an international franchise, the approach that Abu Dhabi has embraced through its collaborations with Guggen-heim, the Louvre and the British Museum for its museum development.

Dr Exell argues that the country has a large amount of history, but that it just takes a different form.

“Local forms, tradition, heritage, history and so on are being overshadowed by the decision to bring in the Western style or forms of museum management. So people

come in and say that there is no history in the region because they are looking for a form of history that exists elsewhere.”

That is problematic in itself, she says, be-cause you need to look at the local culture, family lineage and tribes, and that does not fall into a category that is tangible or under-stood by someone who is used to the West-ern form.

“It takes years of living here to even un-derstand and recognise the nature of the culture here,” she says.

“Qataris are very private and that is part of their culture too.”

She stresses that it is because of their need for privacy that the culture seems in-tangible, not because of the lack of it. “Heri-tage just takes a different form than what is recognisable to outsiders.

“Tribal identity, family identity, is all part of Qatari culture, which is very complex, and we need to be part of the network to know all of this. These are not things to be displayed in a museum; it would be cultur-ally inappropriate to do so. And since they cannot be displayed, there comes in the imported culture, which IS displayed. Peo-ple then come in and say ‘they needed this imported culture because they didn’t have anything of their own,’ which is a misinter-pretation,” she says passionately.

And it is this culture, the one that is tru-ly Qatari, that still resists the museum ad-vancements of history being displayed, be-cause it is not what people here are used to.

So there is still alienation, especially for Mathaf, since local people do not iden-tify with the kind of display that is used there. Hence it is a difficult battle for Qa-tar, a tightrope walk for the organisation, to keep the local audience content while it straddles international expertise and ex-poses the Qatari population to the wider art world. All this should be done without los-ing Qatar's culture of privacy, tribal identity and history

Mayssa FattouHartistic director and curator, Katara art centre

dr Karen exelllecturer, Museum studies and coordinator, ucl qatar

abdellaH KarrouMdirector, Mathaf