Qatar announces plans to open three new museums in Doha – ARTnews.com

The Gulf state of Qatar is ramping up its investments in the arts with plans to build three more museums in Doha, including the new Lusail Museum that intends to host “the world’s largest collection of Orientalist paintings, drawings, photography, sculptures, rare texts, and applied arts.”

The plans were announced on March 27 by Sheikha Al Mayassa bint Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, head of the government body that oversees Qatar Museums, during the Doha Online Forum.

Designed by Herzog & de Meuron, Lucille will be dedicated to the impact of Middle Eastern and Islamic art on the wider world. The four-story building will span 559,700 square feet and will include exhibition space, an auditorium, library and education centers.

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According to the Qatar Museum, Rem Koolhaas Architects, Metropolitan Architecture Office, will design the Qatar Automobile Museum, which will chart “the evolution of the automobile from its invention until today and how it has affected culture in Qatar”.

The committee also touched on plans to renovate an abandoned flour mill on Doha’s waterfront promenade and transform it into the Art Mill, a creative campus that will house more than 861,000 square feet of exhibition and performance space.

This project was first announced in 2015, with Chilean architecture group Elemental spearheading the renovation. According to officials, the campus will accommodate artist residency programs and studio space for creators, as well as preservation and storage facilities. Sheikha Al Mayassa said at the Doha Forum that the silos in the factory will open to the public next October.

Alejandro Aravena, Principal of Pritzer Prize-winning Elemental, said at the session: “The Art Mill will not be just a fully completed piece but an opportunity for young designers, artisans and craftspeople in Qatar to come together to present the knowledge they have accumulated and contributed to the building, housing not only a large collection, but It extends to more popular audiences.”

Over the past two decades, the small, oil-rich country has invested heavily in an ambitious plan to develop museums. In 2019, the Jean Nouvel-designed National Museum of Qatar opened on the busy waterfront, which also houses the Museum of Islamic Art.

The government has not released a timeline or budget for the three new museums.

A major public art program has also been launched ahead of the opening of the FIFA World Cup in November. Forty modern artworks and Qatari and international artists will be installed in various locations across Doha this year, including “parks, shopping areas, educational and sports facilities, Hamad International Airport and Q-Rail stations, as well as the selected stadiums that will host the World Cup,” according to a statement issued. About Qatar Museums.

Works already shown include Untitled (trench, columns, pit, tunnel, chamber)1978, Bruce Nauman, Tom Clasen Falcon (2021) at the airport, and two orchids (2015) by Isa Genzken near the National Theatre, at what the government calls the new “Outdoor Museum”.

Qatar’s museums program is part of a campaign to remake the region’s image through cultural initiatives and expand its economy beyond oil. Neighboring Saudi Arabia previously unveiled its open-air museum on Jeddah’s Corniche, which houses 20 works by high-profile international and Gulf artists, including Hans Arp, Alexander Calder and Maha Malluh.

However, the ambitions of the two countries and their sordid human rights records have yet to be reconciled. International officials denounced Mistreatment of immigrants from South Asia Qatar hired to build the World Cup stadium, an issue pervasive in cultural projects across the Gulf. (Similar accusations have been made against the prospective Guggenheim Abu Dhabi, which the museum has denied.) In 2017, the Qatari government introduced labor reforms to ensure better working conditions.

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