Doha: Qatar Museums and its Chairperson H E Sheikha Al Mayassa bint Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani unveiled yesterday large-scale, site-specific artworks by renowned artists Olafur Eliasson, Simone Fattal and Ernesto Neto that were commissioned for the desert outside of Al Zubarah and Ain Mohammed heritage sites in the nation’s northernmost region.
The works join more than 100 public artworks that Qatar Museums has installed across the nation’s public spaces, from Hamad International Airport to the bustling Souq Waqif, in time for the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022, when 1.5 million visitors are expected to be in Doha. Olafur Eliasson and Ernesto Neto were in attendance for the unveiling of the installations, which took place as part of Qatar Creates, the year-round national cultural movement that curates, promotes and celebrates the diversity of cultural activities in Qatar.
Sheikha Mayassa said: “Today is an especially proud moment for Qatar Museums, not only because we have introduced extraordinary, permanent artworks by three of the most admired contemporary artists in the world, but because in doing so we celebrate Qatar’s storied heritage sites. Al Zubarah, a Unesco World Heritage site, has been lovingly preserved to help visitors understand Qatar’s national identity and the fascinating story of the pearl trade, while the historic structures of Ain Muhammad village are being consolidated and preserved by the Al Nuaimi family to serve the public today and tomorrow as a place of hospitality and traditional sport. These are just two of the examples of how we honor the physical fabric of our culture.”
Olafur Eliasson’s Shadows travelling on the sea of the day (2022) continues the Icelandic-Danish artist’s longstanding exploration into the interplay of human perception and the natural world. The installation comprises twenty mirrored circular shelters, three single rings, and two double rings that are positioned according to the axes of a fivefold symmetrical pattern, with the ten shelters at the centre forming a pentagram, or five-pointed star. The principles behind such patterns were recently discovered by mathematicians in the West, although they may have informed some of the sophisticated designs found in Islamic cultures since medieval times.
For Maqam I, Maqam II, Maqam III (2021) Lebanese artist Simone Fattal has created three monumental sculptures that appear to be geographical landmarks, making them in a blue-coloured granite with a manifold shape that can be perceived as a dune, a construction or a tent. These shapes, both natural and manmade, connect deeply with the archetypes of the landscape and history of Qatar.
Brazilian artist Ernesto Neto’s immersive installation Slug Turtle, TemplEarth (2022), a chant for the Earth, pays homage to the natural environment and creates a space for meditation, reflection and communion between visitors and the spirit of the desert.
