Raqs Media Collective: Still More World draws on the energy of Doha’s urban landscape of light, which symbolises this global city in continuous movement, its networks of people, and raw materials. Thirteen installations ranging from videos to textiles and sculptures, made between 2011 and 2019, are presented at Mathaf and across the city of Doha.
Literary stories and scientific anecdotes about the cycles of progress and change appear in these works, touching on the movement of people and populations, as the material and immaterial are contrasted. Playing with language, energy and digital technologies, the series of five Dohas for Doha (2019) are displayed at Mathaf and as an intervention in the urban environment on Burj Doha, using the lights and architecture of this iconic building to mark the conversation between Raqs and the city. The dense hanging of carpets, To People (2019), shows 'people' as pixelated crowds, referencing the diversity of Doha’s inhabitants and expanded digital networks. Other works explore the connections between living organisms, the natural world, geological time and the cosmos.
The works in this exhibition re-examine human progress and natural resources, considering historical and contemporary movements of people and the way terrains change. Continuing Raqs’ exploration of the immeasurable, Still More World offers a rephrasing of the prevailing sensibility, embodying the double bind of humanity’s present condition; the promise and desire for growth coupled with the question of how much more the earth has left to give.
Curator, Laura Barlow
Assistant Curator, Lina Ramadan
