Tasweer Photo Festival Qatar opens at Mathaf

The biennial Tasweer Photo Festival Qatar launched its fifth exhibition on Thursday at Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art on the topic *I Am The Traveler And Also The Road.
New work by 12 recipients of Tasweer’s annual grant award are on display until May 20 at the event organised by Qatar Museums (QM) as part of Qatar Creates, the year-round national cultural movement that curates, promotes and celebrates the diversity of cultural activities in Qatar.
The festival brings together photographers and photographic communities from Qatar and the Western Asia and North Africa (WANA) region.
Established under the leadership of QM Chairperson HE Sheikha Al Mayassa bint Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani, Tasweer builds on Qatar’s commitment to nurture artistic talent, support creative industries, and further develop the nation’s creative economy.
A key element of Tasweer Photo Festival Qatar are two awards dedicated to Sheikh Saoud al-Thani (1966-2014), one of Qatar’s greatest collectors, who largely shaped the Museum of Islamic Art (MIA)’s extraordinary collection.
The exhibition features the unique photographic approaches of the recipients in 2021 and 2022 of Tasweer’s Sheikh Saoud al-Thani Project Award grants that live in the WANA region.
The featured photographers are Rula Halawani (Palestine), Mona Hassan (Egypt), Mohamed Elshamy (Qatar), Shaima al-Tamimi (Qatar), Samar Sayed Baiomy (Egypt), Hayat al-Sharif (Yemen), Fethi Sahroui (Algeria), Salih Basheer (Sudan), Fatema A M al-Doh (Qatar), Reem Falaknaz (Oman), Mouneb Nassar (Syria), and Abdo Shanan (Algeria).
Complementing the presentation at Mathaf, the Qatar National Convention Centre (QNCC) will host a pop-up version of the exhibition on March 18-19, during the TED in Arabic, a joint initiative with TED and Qatar Foundation (QF).
“The Sheikh Saoud al-Thani Awards programmes actively seek out and showcase the most modern, diverse, and talented photographers in the region, both established and up-and-coming,” Tasweer managing director Khalifa al-Obaidly said. “We have been eagerly awaiting the opportunity to display the exceptional bodies of work produced by our grant award winners from 2021 and 2022 on the walls of the prestigious Mathaf gallery."