Qatar
Qatar Museums announces programme, participating artists for Rubaiya Qatar
Qatar Museums (QM) unveiled yesterday the curatorial programme for the inaugural edition of Rubaiya Qatar, a new international visual arts quadrennial taking place from November 21 to April 30, 2027.
Established under the leadership of HE Sheikha Al Mayassa bint Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani, chairperson of Qatar Museums (QM), Rubaiya Qatar is presented by QM and developed and organised by Alriwaq Arts + Architecture, its institutional home and principal venue. The quadrennial aims to inspire and empower new generations of artists and thinkers, using Qatar’s dynamic cultural landscape as a platform for creative expression and exchange.
Rubaiya Qatar will take place across multiple venues in Doha, including the newly renovated Alriwaq Arts + Architecture building, the Museum of Islamic Art (MIA), Katara QM Gallery and Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art, as well as public spaces across the country.
The inaugural edition is centred on themes of global ecology; water’s social, political, economic, and cultural importance; and the maritime heritage that forged connections between Qatar and the world. It brings together exhibitions and public art installations by more than 120 regional and international artists representing more than 45 countries, with particular attention to artists from the global majority.
Led by headline exhibition Unruly Waters, curated by Tom Eccles, Ruba Katrib, Shabbir Hussain Mustafa, and Mark Rappolt, the quadrennial will present more than 30 new commissions by artists including Bani Abidi (Pakistan), Lawrence Abu Hamdan (Lebanon / UK), Sophia al-Maria (Qatar), Majid al-Remaihi (Qatar), Mohamed Bourouissa (France / Algeria), Ade Darmawan (Indonesia), Alia Farid (Puerto Rico / Kuwait), Ayoung Kim (South Korea), Charles Lim (Singapore), Naeem Mohaiemen (Bangladesh), Yuko Mohri (Japan), Oscar Murillo (Colombia), Priya Sen (India) and Marina Tabassum (Bangladesh).
The exhibition brings together a rich diversity of media and forms, spanning film, sculpture, painting, installation, food, performance, community activations, workshops and more.
The works on show range from tenth-century ceramics to contemporary digital installations created with the help of AI, reflecting the breadth of artistic practices and perspectives brought together in Rubaiya Qatar.
Sheikha Reem al-Thani, deputy CEO of Alriwaq Arts + Architecture, Public Art and Rubaiya Qatar said: "More than a platform for presenting art, Rubaiya Qatar is an investment in cultural production, international exchange and the relationships that will shape future generations of artists, thinkers and audiences.”
Sheikha Alanood al-Thani, director of Rubaiya Qatar, said: "Foregrounding non-Western perspectives, fostering ambitious new commissions and embedding deep ecological and historical research into its curatorial core, Rubaiya Qatar offers a fresh paradigm for international exhibitions of contemporary art.”
Unruly Waters November
21 – April 30, 2027
On view at Alriwaq Arts + Architecture, with additional presentations at the nearby MIA and in MIA Park, Unruly Waters takes its title from historian Sunil Amrith’s book of the same name, which explores the reciprocal relationship between water and humanity throughout history.
Among the exhibition’s highlights are historic artefacts from the tenth-century Cirebon shipwreck, discovered off the coast of Java, Indonesia, and long held in the collections of QM.
Among the featured artists in Unruly Waters are Yousef Ahmad (Qatar), Khalid Albaih (Sudan), Kamal Aljafari (Palestine), and others.
Our Common Currents November 22 – April 30, 2027
The exhibition examines humanity’s enduring relationship with water, examining themes from cultural rituals and recreation to agriculture and industry.
The exhibition will present works by 12 international artists, including four new commissions and loans from the future Art Mill Museum. Curated by Lina Patmali, acting head of Curatorial Affairs, Rubaiya Qatar, it will be presented at Katara QM Gallery.
Newly commissioned works include Taloi Havini’s (Australia / Bougainville) site-specific sculptural installation and its courtyard garden, which was designed by conservation ecologist Dr Aspa D Chatziefthimiou using native desert and mangrove plants to evoke Qatar’s land and shore; Latent Community’s (Greece) environment exploring Qatar’s diverse terrains—from rocky deserts and moving dunes to natural depressions and intertidal zones—for a meditation on the fragile ecosystems between desert and sea; Miguel Fernández de Castro’s (Mexico) video examining the concept of purity through an exploration of and dialogue between the Arabian horse, desalination process, and salt; Artcom Platform’s (Kazakhstan) interactive digital and textile installation inspired by Lake Balkhash and its urban and nomadic communities in Kazakhstan.
Seething Sea, November 22 – April 30, 2027
On view at Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art, Seething Sea, curated by Wadha Al-Aqeedi with assistant curator Loulwah Kutbi, derives its title from the Holy Qur’an, where the sea is envisioned ablaze, and the element that ought to extinguish fire becomes its fuel.
It brings together more than 50 artists and over eighty works from Mathaf’s collection, loans and a new
large-scale commission by Jasem AlSanea.
Public Art Installations
Rubaiya Qatar will also feature major new public art installations debuting across Qatar between November 21 and April 30, 2027. Public artworks include Rirkrit Tiravanija’s (Thailand) untitled 2025 (no bread no ashes), originally presented by Rubaiya Qatar in fall 2025 and returning to MIA Park to serve as a gathering place for the sharing of food and ideas; and Jitish Kallat’s (India) Here After Here After Here 25°17’33’’N 51°32’46’’E, among others.