The Sculpture ‘7’, by world-famous American artist Richard Serra

By Fran Gillespie/Our Correspondent
The brand new park forming a green background to Qatar’s Museum of Islamic Art (MIA) on the Doha Corniche was inaugurated yesterday evening, in the presence of HH the Emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani, Qatar Museums Authority chairperson HE Sheikha Mayassa bint Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani, and a large gathering of VIPs and special guests.
A temporary concert shell housed musicians from the Qatar Philharmonic Orchestra who performed Hughes de Courson’s The Magic Lutes. Beforehand, a dramatic light show heralded the presentation, with guests seated facing Doha Bay and scenic views of the city’s skyline.
Prominent on the water’s edge is the massive steel sculpture entitled ‘7’, by world-famous artist Richard Serra. Earlier in the day, while speaking to the media about his creation, Serra recalled more than three years ago he was invited by HE Sheikha Mayassa to view the MIA before its completion, and to discuss the possibility of making an aesthetic contribution.
At the time, the site for the future park was simply a pile of rubble. He suggested extending the long, palm-ringed esplanade which encircles the bay to create a platform for a sculpture which would form a link between the museum buildings and a public space.
The 60m long sculpture plaza, specially designed to support ‘7’, is clad in black granite and is surrounded by water, with stairs rising from the water’s edge on the south side.
IM Pei, the Chinese-American architect of the museum, was approached for his opinion and gave the concept his enthusiastic approval. His son, CC Pei, commented yesterday that very few artists have the chance to design the site for their own sculptures.
Like Pei, who set out to find inspiration for the museum by researching art and traditional architecture throughout the Islamic world, Serra, too, began to study Islamic art and was particularly drawn to the designs of minarets ‘from Spain to Yemen’.
Eventually he found inspiration in an unusual 8-sided stellar-shaped minaret, erected in the late 10th century in Ghazni, Afghanistan.  Instead of being circular like most minarets, it is made up of flat, unornamented planes.
‘The sculpture should be seen as one would see a campanile on a plaza, or a beacon or lighthouse on an island, a tall shape relating to a flat space’, said Serra. It is composed of seven plates of high-grade Corten steel from Germany, standing 24m high, with a base covering almost 3m and narrowing towards the summit.
At ground level are three triangular openings and there is a seven-sided aperture at the top. The piece is situated so that the openings form a frame for the museum building on the other side of the bay, giving the illusion that the building is brought into the sculpture, particularly at night.
‘The title ‘7’ refers to the plan of the sculpture,’ he explained. ‘But I later learned that the number seven has great significance in Islamic religion and science, and there are many references to it in the Holy Qu’ran.’
Talking to Gulf Times, Serra said that as a youth he had worked in a steel mill to earn enough to put himself through college. ‘So I’ve worked with steel all my life, my sculptures are steel and this sculpture is made of the finest steel in the world.’
Asked about the patches of rust already forming on the sculpture he explained, ‘It will rust for eight years, and the colour will gradually change from orange to a darker orange until it is a uniform dark shade. The process will then stop as the oxygenisation process will be complete.’
He believed, he said, that art is universal. ‘Children will run through this piece and they won’t care if it is Islamic or western art. IM Pei does not see his work as either Chinese or American and neither do we – my work is intended for everyone; it’s international.’
The director of  Public Art Programmes for the Qatar Museums Authority, Jean-Paul Engelen, paid tribute to the remarkable vision of HH the Emir who, he said, lays great emphasis on the importance of public art in Qatar.
‘Very few heads of states do this,’ he remarked. Recently a major sculpture, Maman, by the late artist Louise Bourgeois was installed in the Qatar National Convention Centre, and important installations are planned for the New Doha International Airport. ‘Sculptures by Serra and Bourgeois are an incredible way to introduce Western contemporary art to this country,’ he said. 
The 62-acre park, designed by Hiroshi Okamoto, is located on the waterfront in the grounds of the MIA and will open to the public in early January 2012. Entry is free. There will be live musical performances by jazz groups and local bands, as well as a range of food on offer at the many cafes and kiosks, along with souvenirs and gift items.
The park includes around 2km of lighted pedestrian walkways with panoramic views of the West Bay area of Doha. Year round public activities will include film screenings, sports events, storytelling programmes and art workshops.

 

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