Events and Activities
DFI Public Talk
Project Space 13: Doha Art Map
Majid Al-Remaihi / Short Narrative / Qatar / 2017 / 13 min / Colour
Doha Art Map exhibition project is conceived as a platform for research around art production and debate taking place within Mathaf Project Space’s 13th edition. The Museum invites artists, curators, aspiring curators and creative community to continue discussions around the contemporary art scene in Doha. Bringing together filmmakers and artists, the open forum will survey film and performance art practices in Doha and discuss their role in shaping society.
Mathaf invites three Qatari directors—Jassim Al Romaihi, Majid Al-Remaihi, Khalifa Al-Marri --from Doha Film Institute to participate in Project Space 13: Doha Art Map, introduced by Curator Laura Barlow and moderated by Curator Hessa Al Romaihi. The topic will touch base on how film can portray art through a lens, how each of the young Qatari directors managed to paint their own imaginations and place them on a screen. The conversation will present the directors perspectives on the medium of film and its role to develop creative and critical thinking?
Directors: Jassim Al Romaihi, Majid Al-Remaihi, Khalifa Al-Marri
Installation view of Project Space: Doha Art Map, 2014, Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art, Doha
Project Space 13 builds on the existing and ongoing Doha Art Map, a project initiated by Mathaf in 2014 to explore spaces of art and creativity in the city of Doha. In 2019 the third iteration of the project continues this route of inquiry while actively engaging with public and private spaces of collecting, to debate the responsibility of collections, their preservation and presentation. As an experimental research platform, the Doha Art Map invites the Museum’s diverse audience and creative community to collectively survey the contemporary art scene in Doha, asking questions around the places of art production, collecting and display, to identify where original ways of working are taking place, and addressing how various public and private practices contribute to the shaping of the art ecosystem in Doha today.
The Doha Art Map is housed at the Mathaf Project Space and disseminated beyond the physical boundaries of the museum through an active program of studio visits, discussions, and interventions in the city, to examine local trends in contemporary art, and better understand and debate the spaces that nurture creativity.
The space will include various iterations of the Doha Art Map and invites the public to mark the spaces of art on the map, participating in a collaborative practice of exploration, research, debate, and intervention. The project will expand offsite for artist led tours and studio visits, as well as an art performance at Katara Art Center. Documentation of the project’s activities including photographs and films, are shared on the walls in Project Space as part of the research materials, as printed and projected images. Books and reference materials on the local and regional art activities are made available, creating a public resource on art in Doha within the museum.
The project is led by Mathaf Curatorial team in collaboration with Art Programs and local artists, organizations, collectors and creative professionals, to explore the contemporary venues and spaces for art production, art discussions, and art display. As a project of civic engagement, the Doha Art Map recognizes the need to encourage open discussions among various entities that play fundamental roles in enriching the local creative synergy, stimulating the exchange of ideas, and assimilating diverse and interconnected perceptions of local art practices.
Title: Mathaf Talk with Jameela Al Shraim
Date: 15 May 2019
Time: 9:00PM
Location: Project Space, Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art, Education City, Doha
The history of culture that emerged in Doha during the 1970’s and 1980’s has shaped Qatar’s art practices today. Artists have been the agents that have written narratives of the untold histories of art and society. Today, the institutional role of archive in the museum context in Doha is emerging, positioning itself as a pivotal source of documentation, research, and storytelling.
Artist Jameela Al Shraim, in conversation with Curator Lina Ramadan, will trace the history of exhibitions, art education and criticism, production spaces and the development of modern art, looking at the artist’s archives and personal stories.
The talk will be held at Mathaf’s Project Space in Arabic, in conjunction with Project Space 13: Doha Art Map (13 March – 13 July 2019).
About the artist: art critic and visual artist Jameela Al Shraim was born in Rumaillah, Qatar in 1965. Her practice spans mediums such as painting, graphic art and sculpture. Al Shraim was one of the first female artists to join Doha’s Al Marsam Al Hurr (the Liberal Art Studio) in 1983. She received her BA in Fine Arts and Education from the Education Department, Qatar University in 1988. Since then, Al Shraim has worked in different fields relating to art education, art criticism and journalism such as in Al Sharq newspaper. She plays an important role in documenting the participation of Qatari female artists in the development of the local modern art scene.
The façade of Al-Marsam Al Hurr (the Liberal Art Studio), ca. 1982
Join us for our Mathaf Voices guided tour in our exhibitions, every day from 3pm to7pm for, from May 2019 to June 2019
Tours are conducted in Arabic, English.
Curator Tour - M. F. Husain: Horses of the Sun and Raqs Media Collective: Still More World
Date: 21 March
Time: 4pm
Location: Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art, Doha
Join curators Ranjit Hoskote and Laura Barlow for a tour of Mathaf Spring exhibitions: M. F. Husain: Horses of the Sun and Raqs Media Collective: Still More World. The Raqs Media Collective artists (Jeebesh Bagchi, Monica Narula and Shuddhabrata Sengupta) will be present.
The tour is open to all and free to attend.
Mathaf Talk: Tomorrows Ripen Today
Date: 21 March 2019
Time: 6pm
Location: Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art
In conjunction with their exhibition Raqs Media Collective: Still More World, the artists will present a talk - ‘Tomorrows Ripen Today’*, which foregrounds the conceptual framing of the exhibition and presents the way in which Raqs works with time. The talk also presents Raqs’ way of thinking about how cities like Doha and Delhi, with layered pasts and polyglot futures, anticipate tomorrow and trace the routes straddling stories, histories, trade routes and ocean currents that connect people between South Asia and the Gulf region.
Raqs Media Collective was founded in 1992 by Jeebesh Bagchi, Monica Narula and Shuddhabrata Sengupta. They live and work in Delhi, India
This talk will be introduced by the curator of the exhibition, Laura Barlow.
*Tomorrows Ripen Today is a phrase taken from Dohas for Doha, one of the works especially produced by Raqs for this exhibition.
M. F. Husain: Horses of the Sun
MATHAF: ARAB MUSEUM OF MODERN ART, DOHA
ATRIUM AND GALLERIES 4, 5 and 6
21 March - 31 July 2019
Maqbool Fida Husain (1913-2011) was a legendary figure in the history of Indian modernism. A founding member of the Progressive Artists Group, formed in Bombay in 1947, Husain played a leading role in revolutionising art in India by parting ways with the dominant genres of academic painting and miniaturist nostalgia.
Raqs Media Collective: Still More World
Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art, Doha
Atrium and Galleries 1, 2 and 3
21 March 2019 - 31 July 2019
Raqs Media Collective’s artistic practice examines questions of the everyday, alongside philosophical and historical inquiries of the universe. Unravelling structures of economies, time, and language, their work examines the shifting state of contemporary life and boundaries of visibility. This exploration of transformation, is embedded in the process and subject of their work, and in the collective’s name – ‘raqs’ – a term for movement and whirling, in Urdu/Hindustani, Arabic, and Persian.
Save the Date!
6th annual Mathaf Student Art Show Harmony
Wednesday, 24 April 2019
Join us as we celebrate the creativity of aspiring young artists from different schools in Qatar.
Art Lessons at Mathaf with Ismael Azzam
Every Sunday and Wednesday 4pm-7pm
Manara – Education Space at Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art
Join artist Ismael Azzam for a new season of Art Lessons at Mathaf and learn techniques in portraiture drawing using pencil and charcoal and paint.
• Lessons are offered to people with basic to intermediate sketching and drawing skills
• Each participant must bring their own sketchbook
• Participants may also be asked to sit in as a model to have their portraits done
• Admission is free
• Seats are limited
• To register, click here
Are you interested to have your portrait done by artist Ismael Azzam?
We are looking for volunteers to sit in as a model for the Art Lessons at Mathaf led by artist Ismael Azzam. If you are available between 4pm-7pm every Sunday and Wednesday, and can commit to the time slot, please to confirm by email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.