About 200 artists and experts are attending a conference seeking to explore the increasing role visual arts play in the modern world. By Anand Holla
In its continuing quest of scaling new heights in the art scene of the Middle East, Qatar will usher in the inaugural edition of a top-level art forum, from Saturday to Monday.
The International New York Times Art for Tomorrow conference will see experts debate and explore the increasing role the visual arts play in economics, urban development, tourism and globalisation.
Under the patronage of Qatar Museums and the Ministry of Culture, Arts and Heritage of Qatar, Doha will host the event, a telling indication of the growing international recognition for Qatar’s contribution to dialogue and progress through art.
Set to be opened by HE Sheikha Al Mayassa bint Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani, the inaugural Art for Tomorrow conference will focus “on the art and architecture that is playing a vital role in building communities, developing commerce and enriching lives throughout the globe.”
“The conference will explore the changing dynamics of art and architecture and their potential to change people and places. We will bring together guests drawn from the arts, public and private sectors as well as tourism experts, city planners and business developers,” the organisers say.
“We look forward to two days of exciting conversations among a diverse mixture of attendees — global leaders in their fields, from artists and architects to museum and gallery directors, cultural ministers and financial experts.”
This means that everybody from leading artists and architects to urban planners and political decision-makers will experience numerous aspects of Qatar’s growing arts and culture scene, maturing artistic community and development as a progressive, creative hub.
The conference venue is W Doha Hotel & Residences, and the long list of speakers includes notable names such as Dr Abdellah Karroum, Director of Mathaf and Arab Museum of Modern Art, and Jean-Paul Engelen, Director of Public Art Programs at Qatar Museums.
With 200 guests representing the arts, public and private sectors, tourism experts, city planners and business developers, Art for Tomorrow will open up conversations around the changing dynamics of art and architecture, and their potential to transform people and places.
Some of the topics that will be addressed are the intersection of commerce with art and architecture, the challenges in creating new art destinations, extending the reach of the world’s great museums, educating and enriching communities through art, the influence of new art collectors, investors, auction houses and gallerists, and new technologies, immersive experiences and the art market.
A quick look at the agenda is enough to get a sense of the significance of this conclave. While Jean Nouvel, the prolific architect of the Institut du Monde Arabe and the new National Museum of Qatar, will share personal experiences from the front line between art and architecture, the much-celebrated American artist Jeff Koons will deliver his own personal reflections on the state of play.
Architect, urbanist and polemicist Rem Koolhaas, whose 2006 analysis of the cities of the Gulf still resonates, will assess how far the region has developed its own version of urbanism.
Zaha Hadid, the first woman to receive the Pritzker Prize for Architecture, creates buildings that continue to surprise and delight with neo-futuristic forms and fragmented geometry. In her talk, she will explore the logic — and the poetry — of her many cultural projects in the Gulf.
Danish-Icelandic artist Olafur Eliasson will talk about his interesting work and projects, both gallery-based and public. “Art,” he believes, “is a crucial means of turning thinking into doing in the world.”
