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A COLLABORATIVE PUBLICATION BETWEEN BROWNBOOK AND THE QATAR MUSEUMS AUTHORITY

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QMA GALLERYat KATARA CULTURALVILLAGE

MUSEUMOF ISLAMIC ART

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Qatar NationalConvention Centre

EducationCity

Doha InternationalAirport

MATHAF: ARAB MUSEUMOF MODERN ART

NATIONAL MUSEUM OF QATAR

In the middle of a Gulf-wide artistic and cultural expansion, Qatar is taking its place at the forefront. For the last 25 years the Qatar Museums Authority (QMA) the governing body in Doha, have been building up their collection of art acquisitions and now as the number of museum and gallery spaces grow, they are succeeding in instigating intelligent debate.

Leading this development is Her Excellency Sheikha Al Mayassa bint Hamad bin Khalifa Al-Thani. Chair of the board of trustees and leading an accomplished team, she has managed over the last six years to make a significant impact on Qatar’s cultural landscape.

Overseeing the numerous and high quality exhibition spaces is part of QMA’s remit in making the classic and contemporary art collection that Qatar now has accessible to the wider public. In line with the appointment of Edward Dolman, former Christie’s chairperson, who is now head-ing the authority and oversees the museums and cultural initiatives, we take an in-depth look at their progress.

In this booklet, the first of eight of its kind, we catch up with Mathaf’s director, celebrate the opening of the recently opened park at the Museum of Islamic Art and witness the unveiling of Ego – an exhibition by the internationally renowned creative artist Takashi Murakami.

PICTURED

Installation view of Cai Guo-Qiang’s

Flying Together

a collection of life sized replicas of falcons and a camel

WELCOME

INTRO

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The Cai Guo-Qiang: Saraab exhibition on view now at Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art.December 5, 2011 - May 26, 2012

Pattern & Map IllustratorAziza Iqbal

In February of 2012, I will be opening a solo exhibition at the new exhibition hall built by the Qatar Museums Authority in Doha, Qatar.

Last year, I held an exhibition at the Chateau de Ver-sailles which was generously sponsored by Her Ex-cellency Sheikha Al-Mayassa bint Hamad bin Khalifa Al-Thani and His Excellency Sheikh Jassem bin Ab-dulaziz bin Jassem Al Thani. The exhibition I now hold in Qatar was born from that series of events but it has now become imbued with its own original concept and is set to become my largest-scale solo show to date.

At present, Qatar is giving its cultural development a tremendous push and has dedicated an especially high amount of concentration and financial support to art. A truly distinguished group of artists has al-ready been invited one after the other to exhibit

in Doha and they are currently producing several unique projects and exhibitions.

In 2012 Qatar will celebrate the 40th anniversary of its founding as a sovereign nation and I am extremely proud that my exhibition will be included in the many events to celebrate this significant milestone.

In Japan this year, as we were affected by a succes-sion of tremendous natural disasters, we received great assistance from Qatar in the form of charita-ble donations. As an individual citizen of Japan, I will never forget the debt that we owe for this support. I am truly grateful from the bottom of my heart.

As part of my coming solo show, I am in the process of preparing a 100 metre long painting, which came as a revelation in the aftermath of those disasters.

The painting will centre on the motif 500 Rakkan (stone statues) and feature 500 characters repre-senting the disciples of Buddha. It is my intention that this painting be an answer to the incredible help that we received from the Qatari people and the same ap-plies to the entirety of the exhibition itself.

In order to carry out this challenge, we have also enlisted the help of the new museum director Massi-miliano Gioni, who can be credited for making a truly rock solid team.

Please look forward to this show, which is in many ways the culmination of my life up until this point.

— Takashi MurakamiEgo will be on view from February 9 to June 24 in the Al Riwaq exhibition hall, located on the grounds of

the Museum of Islamic Art on Doha’s Corniche.

Pom & Me, 2009-2010

Courtesy Galerie Perrotin, Paris© 2009-2010

Takashi Murakami/Kaikai Kiki Co., Ltd. All Rights Reserved.

LATEST NEWS

He’s a cultural commentator and one of the most establihed artists in Japan. Now Takashi Murakami will be exhibiting for the first time in the region with Ego - a partly retrospective show hosted by the Qatar Museums Authority. Curated by Massimiliano Gioni the show contains more than 60 previous pieces and several new works.

Here he tells us about it:

SUPER EGO

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The minimalist white exterior with an open floor plan and exposed piping is somewhat at odds with the dusty swirls of desert outside its doors. It is also a far cry from the I.M. Pei designed Museum of Islamic Art perched on a purpose-built island in the lapping waters of the Persian Gulf. But then Mathaf: the Arab Museum of Modern Art is a museum with a differ-ence. 'Art is not perceived through one channel,' says Wassan Al Khudairi, the museum’s director. 'It’s not just about what’s on a four by four canvas in a frame, it is about the whole experience. l and other people need to engage with and interpret what we offer. There isn’t just one lens.'

Through inclusivity the relatively young museum doesn't just focus on connectivity and interaction, Mathaf fosters an interdisciplinary approach with programmes for artists to comment, engage and intervene in a diverse range of topics from urban development to education. The museum exhibitions also attempt to create debate around the question of what it means to an artist in the Arab world. ‘We see our programmes as points of entry into the commu-nity,’ Khudairi explains.

Getting people into galleries to experience and interpret art is central to Mathaf ethos. As such there are notebooks dotted around each exhibit encourag-

ing visitors to leave thoughts and reflections about what they experienced. Another corner houses a vid-eo booth where the willing can tape their reaction to wandering through the latest installation. These in-teractive touches distinguish this particular location and set Mathaf apart within the expanding QMA fam-ily of world-class exhibitions, programmes, and mu-seums, designed as a diverse offering including na-tional history, the aforementioned MIA and a sports museum. Each of these contributes to an overall art ecology which continues to emerge and develop in Qatar including museums, art schools, and galleries.

'We want to foster the production of original and new knowledge [about art],' Khudairi explains. One of the future plans is a research centre at Mathaf which will host academics, art historians and anthro-pologists. The Middle East region is the reference point for art at Mathaf and for artists practicing their many forms; the formal opening last year saw Arab hip hop artists performing in the courtyard.

Future plans include offering resources for locals to consider developing their practice through art journals and providing inspiration by way of exhibits as well as encouraging people to be experimental. 'We want to open the aesthetic,' Khudairi tells us, 'to help the people rethink what art is.' Upcoming projects include the third annual collaboration with the Global Art Forum in March of this year which will host the first two days of their event at Mathaf before moving to Dubai for the annual art fair. These are the kinds of partnerships that Khudairi sees as key to developing an established platform for regional conversation about art.

As the museum continues to expand, the direc-tor’s role remains a dynamic one with continuous shifts throughout the course of the day between the right and left brains: from strategy and implementa-tion. Khudairi has to juggle social media, websites, budgets, curating exhibitions and organising pro-gramme catalogues as well as of course, the day to day running of the museum. ‘The key to our success thus far is the strength of our team,’ she says.

Q&A

ART YOUR WAYDirector of Mathaf museum shares her plans to bring appreciation of contemporary art to the region

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Located on the grounds of the Museum of Islamic Art, a new public space has been developed with the focal point being a central sculpture plaza. In pride of place is a piece by Richard Serra titled 7; it is the artist’s first public work in the Middle East.

Hosting year-round cultural, educational and recreational activities, the green space will add an entertaining element to the ongoing emergence of art and culture in the capital, ‘it will be a dynamic place of learning and exploration for children, fami-lies and art enthusiasts, with cultural, educational and recreational activities designed to attract one and all,’ says QMA Chairperson Her Excellency Sheikha AlMayassa bint Hamad bin Khalifa Al-Thani .

Like the Museum of Islamic Art itself, Richard Ser-ra’s sculpture will serve as a beacon for the arts in Qatar and will further the QMA’s mission to encour-age global cultural exchange and introduce the Doha community to artists from around the world.

Designed by architect Chien Chung Pei, also known as Didi, son of world-renowned architect I.M. Pei, he continued his father’s vision of develop-ing the architecture in the Arab world, ‘the Art Park was an integral part of my father’s vision for the Mu-

seum of Islamic Art and it has been very rewarding to fulfill this vision.’ The design of the park received its catalytic stimulus when Sheikha AlMayassa com-missioned Richard Serra to create a monumental sculpture as a centerpiece of the park.

‘This may be the first time we have created site-specific sculpture’ she says. ‘It has been fun (and an honour) to work with Serra.’

With the climate in Doha being the major chal-lenge of developing such a park, Didi had to find ma-terials and activities to overcome the environmental challenges. ‘We managed to create activity kiosks, including restaurants, dispersed throughout the park and give the opportunities for people to fly kites, go out in small pedal boats, picnic, and so on.

‘A small amphitheatre can be used for all kinds of performances and the kiosks are shielded from the daytime sun by large tents.

‘The park design is generated from strongly geo-metric inclined planes of grass that will invite peo-ple to sit and watch the activities, with the sculpture dominating the peninsula by its height – 24 metres, we worked closely with Serra to create a pier for his sculpture that appears to float effortlessly over the water of Doha Bay,’ he continues.

With visually striking shapes in mind, the design of grass planes are triangular with sharp and crisp edg-es, while kiosks have patterns that provide screen-ing with much of the Arabic design and are similarly based on geometry.’

ConceptSpace

Last month Doha’s Corniche welcomed a new 62-acre public space; it is set to transform the capital’s waterfront

IN THE PARK

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The Art Park was an integral part of my father’s vision for

the MIA Chien Chung Pei

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