Qatar Museums, the nation’s preeminent institution for art and culture, today announced its fall 2023 exhibitions programme, starting in September and featuring a globe-spanning variety of artists, cultures, and artforms. The programme will be presented as part of Qatar Creates, the year-round national cultural movement that curates, promotes, and celebrates the diversity of cultural activities in Qatar, with several of the exhibitions opening during Qatar Creates Week in October.
The wide-ranging exhibitions, presented in museums, galleries, and cultural hubs across Doha, are:
The Present: The Future of the Past
Air 6 & 7 Exhibition
31 August 2023 – 16 December 2023
Fire Station: Artist in Residence
This unique group exhibition reveals the various stages of the creative process of 31 artists in residence and offers a glimpse into the artists’ studio practice alongside their final artworks. The works displayed aim to convey a portion of this artistic journey while blurring the boundaries between the process and the outcome, and bridges the gap between the exhilarating, chaotic, and intimate personal experience in the studio and the finalised artwork showcased in contemporary art galleries.
Masterpieces of Furniture Design
An exhibition by Qatar Museums and the Vitra Design Museum
8 September 2023 – 9 December 2023
M7
In partnership with the Vitra Design Museum in Germany, M7 will showcase Masterpieces of Furniture Design, an exhibition featuring more than 50 iconic pieces that span 200 years of design. Drawn from the renowned Vitra Design Museum collection, the exhibition will present a comprehensive selection of modern furniture, including original works by leading designers including Alvar Aalto, Le Corbusier, Charles & Ray Eames, Charlotte Perriand, and Virgil Abloh. The exhibition is accompanied by the encyclopaedic Atlas of Furniture Design, the most comprehensive book on furniture design ever published.
The Shape of Time: Art and Ancestors of Oceania from The Metropolitan Museum of Art
24 October 2023 – 25 January 2024
National Museum of Qatar
The National Museum of Qatar will host nearly 130 cherished works from The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s unparalleled Oceanic collection, which are travelling outside of The Met’s walls for the first time in nearly a century, as the Michael C. Rockefeller Wing is being renovated. The exhibition is organised by themes—Voyaging, Ancestors, and Time—which demonstrate the interconnectedness of Pacific Islanders and their rich cultural heritage, and the dynamic artistic expressions on display that date back four centuries.
Growing Kopi, Drinking Qahwa; Stories of Coffee in Qatar and Indonesia
Presented as part of the Qatar-Indonesia 2023 Year of Culture
24 October 2023 – 17 February 2024
National Museum of Qatar
Created for Qatar - Indonesia 2023 Year of Culture, the Coffee Exhibition, organized in collaboration with the National Museum of Indonesia, highlights traditional and contemporary coffee cultures in Qatar and Indonesia through interactive and sensory experiences. By approaching practices related to coffee growing, roasting, brewing, serving, and drinking in Qatar and Indonesia, the exhibition explores the world history of coffee trading and drinking, and the social connections it creates. This global approach through local examples makes it the ideal visit for culture enthusiasts and coffee lovers from all over the world.
Dan Flavin | Donald Judd: Doha
25 October 2023 - 24 February 2024
QM Gallery - Al Riwaq
QM Gallery Al Riwaq will host a highly anticipated exhibition of the work of Dan Flavin (1933-1996) and Donald Judd (1928-1994), two of the most influential figures of Minimalism, who met in 1962 in New York. The exhibition focuses on their shared engagement with material, colour, and form and will be the first major museum presentation to consider their artistic dialogue in nearly two decades. Curated by Michael Govan and Jennifer King and organised by the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) in collaboration with Qatar Museums, the exhibition will feature works spanning the 1960s through the 1990s, drawn from the collection of Qatar Museums, as well as other institutions, private collections, the Dan Flavin Estate and the Judd Foundation.
Fashioning an Empire: Textiles from Safavid Iran
23 October 2023 – 20 April 2024
The Museum of Islamic Art
The Museum of Islamic Art, Doha (MIA) will showcase Fashioning an Empire: Textiles from Safavid Iran, a captivating exhibition that highlights the critical role silk played during the Safavid period (1501-1736 CE). The exhibition is organised into four sections, starting first with the establishment of the silk monopoly and state-funded manufacturing, exploring the production and technical components of textiles; the rise of Isfahan as imperial capital; fashion and trends in Safavid society; and lastly, contemporary commissions created by local designers inspired by Safavid textiles. Fashioning an Empire was conceived by and first presented at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Asian Art, Washington DC (December 18, 2021 to May 15, 2022).
De/Constructed Meaning
26 October 2023 – 5 March 2024
Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art
De/Constructed Meanings is a collaboration with VCUarts Qatar faculty and staff. This project space exhibition will focus on an installation that acts as a writing device on sand showcasing the evolution of the Arabic script interpretations. Using a programmed coding system, it applies Arabic words through the lens of the deconstruction theory developed by Jacques Derrida. The work interrogates itself and the audience on the postcolonial shifts in the culture that is produced, consumed, and exported by residents of the Arab region.
Artists: Giovanni Innella, Hala Amer, Saga Elkabash, and Levi Hammett
Co-curated by Noora Abdulmajeed and Rim Albahrani
The Mailbox Project: Cities Under Quarantine
26 October 2023 – 5 March 2024
Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art
“Cities Under Quarantine: The Mailbox Project” curated by Abed Al Kadiri, is a project born out of the pandemic-induced isolation that consists of 57 handmade, handstitched books created in-house in Beirut that were shipped to 19 different countries. Reza Abedini designed each book for a specific artist and invited them to fill in the book's blank pages. In 2021, the project was realized and shown in Villa Romana and Florence Italy.
Mehdi Moutashar: Introspection as Resistance
26 October 2023 – 5 March 2024
Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art
Moutashar’s first solo exhibition in Qatar presents a constellation of new and existing works in a wide variety of mediums, demonstrating how his conceptual practice bridges contemporary art with the heritage of the Arab-Muslim world. Inspired by Arabic calligraphy and ornamental patterns, and perceiving in them an endless potential, his production challenges the familiar categories into which his work might be inscribed, including Abstraction, Minimalism, or Op-Art. The exhibition points to an unmatched understanding of the region’s aesthetic traditions, transformed and propelled into the present thanks the artist’s original methods.
Curated by: Amin Alsaden
Distilled Lessons: Abstraction in Arab Modernism
26 October 2023 – 5 March 2024
Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art
This exhibition examines experiments in abstraction that differentiate Arab modernism from its counterparts around the globe. The presentation of works from Mathaf collection privileges a specific take on abstraction that focuses on how regional artists have drawn ideas, visual elements, and techniques from the rich and diverse heritage of the Arab-Muslim world, particularly calligraphy and ornamentation.
Curated by: Amin Alsaden
Mal Lawal 4
20 December 2023 - January 2024
National Museum of Qatar
The biennial exhibition Mal Lawal (‘From the Old Times’) invites local, regional, and international collectors to exhibit works from their personal collections and share their stories with the public. Mal Lawal was conceived by Her Excellency Sheikha Al Mayassa bint Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, Chairperson of Qatar Museums, with the aim of showcasing local heritage and offering insight into private collections and the practice of collecting in the region. With a focus on the 1990s, this edition of Mal Lawal adopts a curatorial approach exploring the history of gaming, marked by the emergence of advanced graphic capabilities which spurred remarkable growth in the gaming world. The exhibition aims to highlight how local collectors have preserved memories of this crucial time in gaming through their collections, which reflect the rising popularity of home game consoles during that period.
For more information about Qatar Museums and the fall exhibition programme visit www.qm.org.qa. For information about Qatar Creates and Qatar Creates Week in October visit www.qacreates.com.