Qatar Museums (QM) announced Wednesday new details about Ektashif: Uzbekistan, opening on Sep. 3 at the Museum of Islamic Art (MIA).
Featuring new works by seven Qatari artists inspired by their travels through Uzbekistan, the exhibition is organized by MIA in collaboration with Qatar's Ministry of Foreign Affairs and will be on view through Nov. 28.
Ektashif: Uzbekistan presents new works by Aisha Al Muhannadi, Abdulla Fakhroo, Leena Al Aali, Maryam Abel, Ameena Al Boinin, The Nourah, and Hameed Al Qahtani, each of whom participated in MIA's ongoing Ektashif program (meaning "discover" in Arabic), which provides international travel opportunities to artists looking to more fully understand the diversity of the Islamic world's artistic traditions. Previous iterations of the program sent Qatari artists to India, Turkiye, Spain, and Morocco to develop new skills in traditional Islamic arts.
Through visits to historical sites and hands-on workshops with master craftsmen, the artists in this year's program were immersed in the traditional arts and architecture of Tashkent, Samarkand, and Bukhara, strengthening cultural ties between Qatar and the wider Islamic world.
Each work in Ektashif: Uzbekistan draws from these travel experiences, reflecting the enduring influence of Uzbekistan, a country whose Timurid monuments, ceramic traditions, and living craft practices have long shaped the visual language of Islamic art across Central Asia.
Marking the occasion, Director of the Museum of Islamic Art Shaika Al Nassr said: "The mission of Ektashif is to provide Qatari artists the opportunity to engage directly with the places, traditions, and living heritage of Islamic art, which spans thirteen centuries of history and stretches across multiple continents. Uzbekistan's distinct Islamic heritage, from the brickwork of Samarkand to the ikat fabric workshops of Bukhara, is not only an essential part of this cultural past, but also a source of thriving contemporary practice. The artworks in Ektashif: Uzbekistan suggest how these deeply rooted traditions continue to animate new ways of thinking and new ways of seeing the world."
