Shirin Neshat: Afterwards
9 November 2014–15 February 2015
Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art
PO Box 2777
Education City
Doha
Qatar
Hours: Tuesday–Sunday 11am–6pm,
Friday 3–8pm
T +974 4402 8855/8830
Shirin Neshat: Afterwards
Ground-floor galleries
Mathaf presents a major exhibition of artist Shirin Neshat in fall 2014. The first solo exhibition of the artist in the region, Afterwards shares Neshat’s photographic series from the 1990s to the present, including Women of Allah (1993–97), The Book of Kings (2012), and Our House is on Fire (2013). Also on view are video installations Turbulent (1998) and OverRuled (2012), addressing historical, cultural and political realities on which the artist has focused on for the past 30 years.
Composed of layers of information and images, references and concepts, this exhibition is an experience that, through the artist’s interrogation of history and acts of building and destroying life, provokes a confrontation with humanities inherent contradictions. For Shirin Neshat, the presumed binaries of black and white, man and woman, individual and the masses, fullness and emptiness, presence and absence, are the elements that compose the artist’s personal universe and space of dialogue.
A conversation between the artist and the curator Abdellah Karroum takes place from 3 to 4 pm, as part of the CIMAM 2014 Annual Conference program hosted by Mathaf.
Mathaf Collection, Summary, Part 1
Opening: 1 November 2014
Mathaf Piazza, atrium, and first-floor galleries
Mathaf dedicates the first-floor galleries of the museum to a new display of the collection. This exhibition shows over 100 artists from the collection to tell the stories of the art works and the role they play in the making of the museum. Insisting on the presence of a multitude of artistic directions and contexts, the exhibition positions and gives value to the heritage of Arab modernities within an international context.
Moving beyond traditional linear histories of art in the region, the exhibition reassesses the impact of visual, historical, and experimental influences. This identifies relationships between works and sometimes lesser known important historical moments of social, political, cultural, and industrial progress within the global transition to modernity.
By telling the story of the collection and documenting its art histories, the exhibition interrogates new scholarly, educational, and experiential routes of access to contemporary tendencies.
The exhibition is collectively curated by: Abdellah Karroum, Director; Laura Barlow and Leonore-Namkha Beschi, Assistant Curators; and Yasser Mongy, Researcher.
Project Space 4: Doha Art Map
22 July–15 November 2014
Project Space, ground floor
The fourth program of Mathaf’s Project Space is a collaborative mapping experiment that locates places of art and creativity in Doha. The Doha Art Map asks us to identify where we see and experience art in the city and discuss how these places could potentially become references to our needs.
The physical map in the Project Space is in progress, growing with the participation of visitors at Mathaf and online. It is also used to develop a more pragmatic reading of art in Doha that becomes a shared resource on the city and its art scene. This project and its productions brings together artists, curators, and audiences to explore spaces, objects, and participation, as learning processes for understanding the presence of art in the city and our daily life.
The project was conceived by Mathaf curatorial team in collaboration with local educators and curators.
CIMAM 2014 Annual Conference
“Museums in Progress: Public interest, private resources?”
9–11 November 2014
Hosted and co-organized by Mathaf
CIMAM’s annual conference is currently the most important forum for communication, co-operation and information exchange between museums, professionals, visual arts workers and artists within modern and contemporary art practice. 250 delegates are expected to attend CIMAM 2014 annual conference in Doha on “Museums in Progress: Public interest, private resources?” Three keynote speakers and ten case study presentations form the basis of a larger debate that will take place among the conference delegates. CIMAM and Mathaf are collaborating with several institutions in Doha, including Qatar Foundation, UCL Qatar, Qatar National Convention Center, and Katara Arts Center. H.E Sheikha Al Mayassa bint Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, Chairperson of Qatar Museums, will open the program at Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art.
Qatar Museums press contacts:
Federica Zuccarini, fzuccarini [at] qma.org.qa
Rania Hussein, rhussein [at] qma.org.qa
