Echoes is a prolongation of Al-Muftah’s ongoing research on the recollection of memories and stories that she documents as a continuous autobiography based on personal encounters and family stories.
In this artistic experiment, she distinctively reflects on the rapid social and cultural changes that have taken place in her surroundings in a short period of time. Al-Muftah utilizes the space to evoke shared local memories and question current local cultural practices visibly influenced by technology with growing focus on individualism. In order to highlight this challenging topic the artist contextualizes the lyrical traditional game ‘tag ‘tag ‘tagya* and deconstructs its forms to redefine cultural narratives, offering a symbolic experience in a space in which the past and the present intersect.
The artistic process and methodology are prominently prioritized in this space. This is emphasized by integrating different materials to the project, such as sound, wall mirrors and canvas floor, through which the artist interrogates the perception and the use of traditional collective stories in the context of the contemporary.
* ‘tag ‘tag ‘tagya is the first phrase of a song used in a traditional group game played by boys and girls from different parts of the Arabian Gulf.
Curator, Fatma Mostafawi
Curatorial Assistant, Lina Ramadan
The Artist
Bouthayna Al-Muftah (b.1987 Tunis) is a Qatari artist. She received her BA from Virginia Commonwealth University School of Arts, Qatar in 2010. Upon her graduation, Al-Muftah focused her artistic practice on printmaking, typography, and drawing which evolved into multiple mixed media installations. To reconstruct past experiences into contemporary settings, Al-Muftah often finds folkloric characters and stories and transforms them into her own artistic projects.
Her fascination with Qatar’s old towns such as Al Wakra, has led her to develop strong interest in the old neighborhoods of Doha. In 2014, Al-Muftah created ‘Um al Salasil Wil Thahab’, a black and white portrait series that depicts the common life of the Qatari Fireej. In parallel, Al-Muftah gradually turned to book binding as her primary source of documenting the past. While her work evokes shared memories, it also presents the thought process and detailed research that sets the foundation of recreating these traditions.