preview The Bold and the Beautiful Burning chickens. Terracotta labourers. Bronze foetuses. Beheaded cows. Doha cooks up a storm with its blockbuster exhibitions. Myrna Ayad reviews the Qatari capital’s latest shows. This spread: A s he was giving the press a tour of Adel Abdessemed’s L’âge d’or exhibition at Math- af: Arab Museum of Modern Art, Pier Luigi Tazzi, the show’s curator, had to raise his voice to be heard over the deafening sounds of the Algerian artist’s Ayaï and Printemps video works. We finally put a face to the hysterical racket emanating from Printemps and it wasn’t pretty: across three walls, a Left: An installation view of six of 14 bronze sculptures film depicts chickens being burnt alive. “Adel wants to confront you with the violence of the world,” comprising Damien Hirst’s The Miraculous Journey at Doha’s explained Tazzi. Well, Abdessemed definitely fans the flames of violence in L’âge d’or. ‘I’m angry at the Sidra Medical and Research Centre. 2005–13. world’ is what the show seems to declare across the artist’s clever attempts to mirror contemporary Variable dimensions. and vicious realities in his body of work. “I think it is unlikely that Printemps would be shown in a Right: Detail of Hirst’s The Miraculous Journey. public museum in London,” commented Dr Sarah Thornton, author of Seven Days in the Art World. Photography by Nadine Koudsi. “Animal rights activists would be up in arms.” 100 review “The Miraculous Journey doesn’t feel like Hirst because it’s sweet and Hirst isn’t sweet.” Dr Sarah Thornton A few days after the vernissage, visitors to said Tazzi. “This show is a statement.” Dispersed series of vases made from various materials in- L’âge d’or reported that the video had been across Mathaf’s ground floor is Soldaten (Ger- cluding gold, ceramic, wood and dried hashish. turned off, as did some Twitter users. One com- man for soldier), a series of large charcoal on How did dried hashish get into Qatar? “I don’t ment on Mathaf’s Instagram account said: paper drawings of uniformed soldiers that of- know,” laughed Tazzi. The show ends with Ab- “Mathaf is already having a hard time getting fers a very Orwellian feel to the high school- dessemed’s wife Julie, sculpted from salt from visitors. Good luck getting the locals to visit. turned-museum. Of the 16 works on display in Siwa and which sits atop a limestone from Qa- Disgusting satanic art is not welcome in Qa- L’âge d’or, three have been specially commis- tari quarries. It is a sweet, albeit anomalous end- tar.” Though many Tweeted their anger at the sioned for Mathaf: Shams, Julie and La Chine est ing to a harsh show. presentation of Printemps, Mathaf’s social net- proche. Non-Arabic speakers may have gravely working sites continued to reiterate the same misread Shams in English to mean a fraud, statement: ‘The artwork Printemps (Spring) when in reality it means sun and was named The People Have Spoken by Adel Abdessemed is a FILM’. A film? So? so to cast a light on the status of labourers. This Before Printemps caused a flurry of hostility on Perhaps some missed ‘spring’, which alludes is quite a sensitive topic given the ongoing social networking sites, Abdessemed’s Coup to the Arab Spring. Tazzi grinned at the sug- news reports of Qatar’s maltreatment of its mi- de Tête sculpture irked denizens when an edi- gestion; Abdessemed’s work after all, is noth- grant workers. The ethereal installation is made tion acquired by the Qatar Museums Authority ing if not political. “I find it impossible not to with 30 tonnes of terracotta and employed (QMA) was placed on Doha’s corniche. The art- interpret it politically. It’s reflective of the vio- 21 Chinese craftsmen, 30 young interns and ist immortalised one of FIFA’s memorable mo- lence and servitude that prevails in the region,” Abdessemed himself to create a room filled ments – the infamous Zidane head-butt dur- said Thornton. with labourers. “He is celebrating the fatigue of ing the 2006 World Cup Final – in five metres There is no chronology in the rather small the proletariats in the capitalist era,” explained of bronze. Local press reported on residents L’âge d’or, nor can the show be classified as a Tazzi. One figure in Shams depicts a construc- Tweeting their outrage, questioning how the miniature model of Abdessemed’s retrospec- tion worker with outstretched arms cast in a footballer was linked to Qatar and why a vio- tive at the Pompidou last year. What unites the gesture comparable to Christ’s crucifixion – no lent act had been commemorated, while oth- works is the exhibition’s title: L’âge d’or, as in, doubt indicative of the concept of sacrifice. In ers cited Islam’s stance against idolatry. Only a this is what the artist believes to be the golden the adjacent room is La Chine est proche, a bicy- 10-minute drive away from Coup de Tête is the age. “The Pompidou show was Adel’s history,” cle made from camel bone and sits alongside a Museum of Islamic Art, where an impressive col- 101 This page: Above: Adel Abdessemed. (Detail) Shams. 2013. Mixed media. Site- specific installation on four walls. 600 x 550 cm. Below: Adel Abdessemed. (Detail) Julie. 2013. Salt on limestone rock. 370 x 200 x 150 cm. Facing page: Damien Hirst. The Beheading. 2006–13. Glass, painted stainless steel, silicone, ceramic floor tiles, stainless steel, resin butcher’s block, knives, machete, chain mail glove, cow and formaldehyde solution. 213.4 x 304.8 x 182.9 cm. lection spanning 1400 years includes figures in busts, tapestries, bowls, paintings, manuscripts and masks – some even feature women bathing. Coup de Tête received a lot more criticism than Damien Hirst’s The Mi- raculous Journey – a set of 14 monumental bronze sculptures that depict the development of a foetus from the moment of conception to birth, concluding with a fully formed baby boy. Visitors to Venice’s Fondazione Giorgio Cini on the island of Saint Giorgio Maggiore this year may have likened Hirst’s babies to Evolution by fellow YBA Marc Quinn, whose site- specific installation includes 10 giant marble sculptures of foetuses at various gestational stages. The Qatar-Hirst relationship, however, is not a new one: in 2009, the artist was commissioned to create The Miraculous Journey and QMA sponsored his Tate retrospective last year. The unveil- ing of the “babies” – as the work has been dubbed – at the Sidra Medical and Research Centre was attended by HE Sheikha Al-Mayassa Bint Ha- mad Al-Thani, Chairperson QMA Board of Trustees, Hirst, QMA staff and a host of dignitaries, dealers and enthusiasts. Before the 14 balloons cover- ing the sculptures were slipped off, a young boy recited verses from the Qur’an that discuss conception. It was perhaps the first time that such a reading to mark a cultural event took place in Qatar – a smart move to appease those who may have reservations surrounding the nature of the sculptures. Awe-inspiring for their sheer size and cumulative weight of 216 tonnes, the babies, said many, were just not Hirst-esque. “The Mi- raculous Journey doesn’t feel like Hirst because it’s sweet and Hirst isn’t sweet,” said Thornton. Given the work’s ‘un-Hirst-like’ nature, others won- dered why Qatari artists or craftsmen were not commissioned to create the babies, which are rumoured to have cost $20 million – a conservative figure by Hirst standards. The Hirst Effect Meanwhile, themes of life, death, anguish and harsh realities take cen- tre stage at the Al-Riwaq exhibition space, plastered in Hirst’s signature spot painting. Curated by Francesco Bonami, Relics, the artist’s largest retrospective to date, presents over 90 works and is, hands down, spec- tacular. “I think it’s a new and improved Tate show,” Hirst told Canvas. “A 102 “I don’t want people to be able to walk away from my work. My work is designed to engage you, involve you and make you think; it’s not designed to reject.” Damien Hirst 103 remains. Another striking space is Room 14, which houses A Thousand Years, the infamous glass case containing a severed cow’s head, from which flies feed underneath an insect-o- cutor. Many were repelled by the gore or was it perhaps the reality of the cycle of life? “I don’t want people to be able to walk away from my work,” said Hirst. “My work is designed to engage you, involve you and make you think; it’s not designed to reject.” Shock, however, may lead to rejection. “The world is shocking,” replied Hirst. One visitor couldn’t bring herself relic is something that is kind of from the past, at Hirst’s single-artist Sotheby’s sale in 2008, to walk through the narrow passageway in the it’s old; I mean, why can’t you create a relic from The Kingdom is one of three sharks on show, biblically named Mother and Child (Divided) – today?” Relics’ overall display was intelligent, alongside 10 other animals in formaldehyde a cow and a calf sliced in four separate glass offered works plenty of breathing space and or in glass cases. One would be hard-pressed cases of formaldehyde. Other artworks with was, unlike the Tate retrospective, not chrono- to identify which work is the show’s pièce de biblical references include the gold-plated logical. “Relics also de-emphasises the market,” résistance, but many fingers point to the cir- Saint Bartholomew, Exquisite Pain sculpture of said Thornton. “The climax of the Tate show was cular Room 11, which presents two diamond- the flayed apostle. Some were surprised at the a room dedicated to his Sotheby’s sale, which encrusted skulls, the notorious $80 million For presentation of a “naked” saint; there is a fun- gave the exhibition a commercial feel; Doha the Love of God and For Heaven’s Sake, an infant’s damental difference, however, between being wasn’t like that.” skull. Memento mori aside, “It’s hard to look at skinned and naked. On the subject of biblical A room full of Hirst’s spot paintings caused a skull and say it was living,” said Hirst. “They references, it is interesting to note that while their intended effect – dizziness – but it was become objects very quickly.” It isn’t Room 11’s all caption boxes include Arabic translations of the first shark in formaldehyde, The Kingdom expensive contents as much as it is the show’s the works’ materials, none present the names of in Room 1, that stopped people in their tracks. overall arresting curation: the skulls overlook the pieces in Arabic. It would have been tricky, Rumoured to have been acquired by a member The Immortal in Room 7, a shark whose wide to say the least, to write ‘Allah’ in the caption of the Qatari ruling family for over $15 million open jaws appear to devour the glistening box for God, the medical cabinet in Room 7. 104 review Collateral Shows Across the lawn from Al-Riwaq is the IM Pei-designed Museum of Islamic Art (MIA), which stages Hajj: The Journey Through Art, an incarnation of the British Museum’s landmark 2012 show Hajj: Journey to the Heart of Islam. The MIA show’s timing was fitting as it preceded the Islamic pilgrimage, but the exhibition itself has been significantly scaled down from its mother version. The MIA show’s three rooms are crammed with 144 pieces and the main difference between the two exhibitions is their content: 90 per cent of the pieces are from Qatari collections, including those of HE Sheikh Saud Bin Moham- med Bin Ali Al-Thani, HE Sheikh Hassan Bin Mohammed Bin Ali Al-Thani (founder of Mathaf and Vice Chairperson of QMA), the QMA Media Collections Department, Doha’s Orientalist Museum and Dr Abdullah Al-Sulaiti. “The main idea was to take a concept. It wasn’t about taking objects,” said Dr Mounia Chekhab-Abudaya, the show’s co-curator and MIA’s Curator of Manuscripts. “I was sure there were things in Qatar, so why bring works from elsewhere?” In a sense, Hajj: The Journey Through Art This page: Left: Francesco Vezzoli. Four Fabulous recalled Mal Lawal, a show staged in Al-Riwaq last September that presented the varied collections faces: Garbo Laughs. 2001. One of nine elements. Mixed media. 35 x 55 cm. Image of Qatari nationals. Many pieces in Hajj: The Journey Through Art had never been exhibited before and courtesy Chiara Bersi Serlini Collection. only a handful are Contemporary, including those by Ahmed Mater, Walid Siti, Mahmoud Al-Obaidi, Right: Walid Siti. (Detail) Untitled from the White Cube series. 2010. Acrylic and Reem Al-Faisal, Idris Khan and Ayman Yossri Daydban. crayon on paper. 71 x 100 cm. Image courtesy QMA, Doha. Contemporary art can be found in Francesco Vezzoli’s Museum of Crying Women, a show at the Facing page: QMA Gallery in Katara staged to resemble Versailles’s Hall of Mirrors and which presents the Ital- Installation view of Damien Hirst’s ian artist’s portraits of iconic women of the 21st century with his signature embroidered tear. The (background) Beautiful, cheap, sh***y, too easy, anyone can do one, big, motor- exhibition doesn’t leave much to the imagination as it very obviously depicts the glamour versus driven, roto-heaven, corrupt, trashy, bad art, sh**e, motivating, captivating, over the anguish of celebrity, making it, simply put: pretty. A subsection of the show is a hall dedicated the sofa, celebrating painting. 1996. Household gloss on canvas and electric to legendary Arab songstress Umm Kulthum, whose many portraits have been cleverly matched motor. Diameter: 365.8 cm; (foreground) Horror at Home. 1995. Fibreglass, to suit various fashion publications. Again, pretty, but then again, being ‘pretty’ means it is tough cigarettes, cigarette packaging, tobacco to compete with, or even take the spotlight away from, two giants: Abdessemed and Hirst, who packaging, cigarette papers, matches, tissues, sweet wrappings, crisp packets, delivered blockbuster shows that added more strings to Qatar’s bow. But there’s always an encore swizzel sticks, drug paraphernalia, paper and ash. Diameter: 69.9 x 243.8 cm. in Qatar: next year, the cast will include maestros Mona Hatoum and Richard Serra. Photography by Myrna Ayad unless otherwise specified. For more information visit www.qma.com.qa 105
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