Your Brain to Me, My Brain to You
20 March – 20 December 2022
National Museum of Qatar

Your Brain to Me, My Brain to You is a new large-scale immersive video installation by internationally renowned Swiss artist Pipilotti Rist (b. 1962). Commissioned by the National Museum to meet the unique dimensions of its gallery, the video is the artist’s first museum installation in the Middle East. The installation invites visitors to embark on a journey of self-discovery through a multisensory experience that inspires introspection and awe. A key feature of the work are “pixels” that comprise 12,000 LED lights strung on cables throughout the gallery for visitors to navigate. Representing neurons, constantly firing and communicating with each other, the pulsing resin-encased bulbs have been programmed in choreography with a soundscape featuring abstract footage of Qatar’s landscapes. Your Brain to Me, My Brain to You is curated by Qatar Museums’ Curatorial Advisor, Tom Eccles, with the National Museum’s Head of Exhibitions, Bouthayna M Baltaji.

Qatar-MENASA 2022 Year of Culture
Opening Ceremony: 3 March 2022
Public Opening: 4 March 2022
Fire Station: Artist in Residence

On the 10th anniversary of the initiative, Qatar will celebrate a Year of Culture not with one nation, but with the entire MENASA region (Middle East, North Africa, and South Asia), partnering with countries that maintain embassies and communities in Doha. Since 2012, Qatar, through its “Years of Culture” initiative, has been promoting multifaceted exchanges with other nations, which fosters dialogue and mutual appreciation among the people of the two countries.  This year, to honor Qatar’s role as host of FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022™, the Qatar-MENASA Year of Culture will offer events both in-person and digitally, engaging the many residents of Qatar who come from the MENASA region and those who are currently in their home countries. The offerings will include art exhibitions, events in music, film, and fashion, culinary experiences, sports events, and educational exchange programs. Public programing is to be announced soon.

3-2-1 Qatar Olympic and Sports Museum
Opening to the public on 31 March 2022

A member of the Olympic Museums Network (OMN), the 3-2-1 Qatar Olympic and Sports Museum will be one of the world’s most innovative and technologically advanced museums dedicated to sports. The museum will offer an unforgettable and inspiring interactive journey through the history and legacy of sports around the globe and the Olympic Games. Through its participatory spaces and programming, 3-2-1 aims to inspire and engage its community and encourage the public to take part in sports and physical activity. Designed by Spanish architect Joan Sibina, the museum is approximately 19,000 square meters—making it one of the largest of its kind—and is built onto Khalifa International Stadium, part of Qatar’s Aspire Zone Foundation.

Sophia Al-Maria. INVISIBLE LABORS  Daydream therapy
02 June –14 January 2023
Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art, Gallery 5, 6, 7
Part of Qatar-MENASA 2022 Year of Culture

Sophia Al-Maria: INVISIBLE LABORS Daydream therapy brings together existing and new works for the Qatari American artist’s first large-scale, multi-part museum exhibition in the Middle East. For this exhibition project, Al-Maria (b. 1983) invites various artists, curators, scholars, and communities into a dialogue around histories, dreaming, futures and the Gulf’s relation to the surrounding regions. The exhibition, which consists of a variety of media including installations, video-work, and commissioned soundscapes, foregrounds the importance of storytelling and speculative narratives as strategies of survival, imagination, and reclaiming stories. INVISIBLE LABORS Daydream therapy is curated by researcher and independent curator Amal Al Haag in close collaboration with Mathaf’s assistant-curator Abdulrahman Mohammed Alkubaisi.

Taysir Batniji: No Condition is Permanent
2 June –14 January 2023
Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art, Gallery 1, 2, 3
Part of Qatar-MENASA 2022 Year of Culture

No Condition is Permanent is a survey exhibition of Palestinian artist Taysir Batniji (b. Gaza 1966). The exhibition looks at Batniji’s diverse practice using painting, drawing, photography, video installation and performances, and spans over two decades, between 1997 and 2020. The artist creates a unique visual vocabulary to document everyday life and address stories that are both individual and universal. His work touches on several themes, including the trauma of displacement, the shifting meanings of memory, and the idea of and the dynamism of identity. The exhibition is co-curated by Mathaf’s Special Curatorial Advisor Abdellah Karroum and Mathaf Assistant Curator Lina Ramadan.