Browsing 'Qatar Museums' News

byShabina S. Khatri
Culture
byShabina S. Khatri
Culture

Qatar Museums

Driven by Germany exhibition

Two major art exhibitions will open to the public next month to mark the Qatar Germany 2017 Year of Culture, Qatar Museums (QM) has announced.

The first will launch at the Al Riwaq Gallery, next to the Museum of Islamic Art.

Titled Driven by German Design, the exhibition was curated with Volkswagen. It explores how the design in Germany has changed over the past several decades, starting with the 1950s and even featuring the future.

In a statement, QM said the exhibition will touch on product and graphic design, architecture, furniture, fashion and automotive design.

Additionally, it will “highlight the influence of German design on ubiquitous objects such as iPhones, cameras and furniture.

It also traces the evolution and development of some of the most iconic cars ever to have been designed, with the Porsche 911 Turbo, Volkswagen Golf and Käfer making an appearance,” QM added.

For the purposes of the exhibition, Al Riwaq is being organized into five “Epoch Rooms” and a “Design Laboratory.”

The exhibition will be open daily from 9am to 7pm Saturday to Thursday; and from 1pm to 7pm on Fridays through Jan. 14, 2018. More information can be found here.

German Encounters

Also on Oct. 3, German Encounters – Contemporary Masterworks from the Deutsche Bank Collection will open at the Doha Fire Station.

This exhibition contains more than 100 works including photographs and paintings that offer an overview of German art from the 1960s to the present.

Qatar Museums

German Encounters Exhibition

According to QM, the collection includes works by Joseph Beuys, neo-expressionist painters such as Georg Baselitz and Markus Lüpertz; photographers of the Düsseldorf School, including Andreas Gursky, Candida Höfer, and Thomas Ruff; and influential post-conceptual artists such as Isa Genzken, Rosemarie Trockel and Martin Kippenberger.

German Encounters will be open daily from 8am to 11pm, Saturday to Thursday; and from 1pm to 11pm on Fridays through Jan. 20, 2018. More information can be found here.

Thoughts?

byShabina S. Khatri
Culture
byShabina S. Khatri
Culture

Sheikha Al Mayassa

Sheikh Tamim murals at MIA Park

The dozens of Emir murals that have been posted and signed around Qatar now have a new home: the MIA Park.

There, more than 40 of the posters that bear messages of support from thousands of people in Qatar comprise a new exhibition called “Tamim Al Majid: Celebration of Unity.”

The display was opened by Qatar Museums chairperson and the Emir’s sister Sheikha Al Mayassa yesterday.

The murals bear the now-iconic image of the Emir by Qatari artist Ahmed bin Majed Almaadheed.

Since the Gulf dispute began in June, posters of the Emir have popped up all across the country.

Residents have been invited to inscribe messages of support on the murals, some of which filled up very quickly and had to be replaced with new murals.

Community graffiti

In a statement, Qatar Museums said:

As the guardians of the country’s heritage and culture, we at Qatar Museums wanted to capture this significant moment in Qatar’s history and the artistic expression it inspired by giving it a bigger platform and audience.”

It added that “the personalized ‘graffiti’ messages are some of the truest examples of public art in Qatar.”

The opening of the exhibition comes as the Gulf dispute reaches an impasse of sorts.

It also follows Saudi Arabia’s recent public support of a little-known Qatari sheikh who analysts suggested the country was presenting as an alternative to Sheikh Tamim.

Thoughts?

byShabina S. Khatri
Photos
byShabina S. Khatri
Photos

All photos by Ray Toh

Its doors temporarily open to visitors, Qatar’s upcoming National Museum has welcomed hundreds of curious guests in the past few weeks.

The museum is offering tours to Culture Pass members before it closes at the end of this year for exhibition installation.

It will officially make its public debut in December 2018, which is at least two years later than originally planned.

The inside

Located across from the Corniche near the Museum of Islamic Art, the National Museum has been designed to look like a desert rose growing out of the ground.

Designed by architect Jean Nouvel, and is made up of several interlocking discs that mimic the crystal formation.

Ray Toh

Qatar National Museum

According to visitors, the concept has made for a unique interior, in that it does not consist of one large space for exhibitions.

This will likely lend to some creative curation. There is also little natural light.

However, restaurant seating is slated to be outdoor and will face the sea, tour operators said.

Other offerings

Eventually, the 40,000 sq meter structure will include 8,000 sq meters of permanent exhibition space and a further 2,000 sq meters for temporary, rotating exhibitions.

The centerpiece of the National Museum was restored in 2015.

QM

Restored palace of Sheikh Abdullah bin Jassim Al-Thani

It is the palace of the former ruler and “father of modern Qatar,” Sheikh Abdullah bin Jassim Al Thani.

Al Thani lived in the palace until it became the country’s former National Museum in 1975.

The National Museum will also house a 220-seat auditorium, two restaurants and a cafe, two shops, a food forum, a research center and laboratories and a park with indigenous plants, Qatar Museums previously said.

Have you seen it yet? Thoughts?