Field Trip: Doha, Qatar
By Sara Raza
As ArtAsiaPacific’s Western Asia editor, I was invited to Doha on the occasion of the opening of Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art’s next major exhibition, “Tea with Nefertiti: The Making of the Artwork by the Artist, the Museum and the Public,” curated by the duo Sam Bardaouil and Till Fellrath. Also on view at Mathaf was “Forever Now: Five Anecdotes from the Permanent Collection,” curated by Dr. Nada Shabout, a scholar and curator who has been a long time advisor to the museum and is director of the associated Research Center on Arab Modernity, which will launch in 2013 and support the museum’s academic fellowships, scholars and journals.
This was my third visit to Doha on behalf of AAP (see issues 72 and 77); the city’s rapid evolution into a major cultural center for the Gulf has been conspicuous over the last few years. In addition to Mathaf, other recent projects include the Museum of Islamic Art, opened in 2008, the soon-to-be-completed International Media Museum, and the more artist- and community-focused Katara: The Valley of Cultures.
