Mathaf gears up for new exhibitions

By Salman Siddiqui/Staff ReporterAs Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art prepares for its next exhibition, tourists from all around the world continue to visit the museum to admire the paintings, sculptures and projects garden space on the first floor.Alaya from Spain, who is visiting a friend in Doha, said she was impressed with the artwork on display. “I travel all around the world and make it a point to visit museums wherever I go. I was really intrigued by the art here, especially the fibreglass doves installation, which I thought was fascinating.”She was referring to the installation “Suspended Together” by Saudi artist Manal AlDowayan. The same artist has opened another exhibition, “Crash”, which will run until March 30, in which she transforms Mathaf’s “Project Space” into a temporary artist studio. Over the course of the two-month project, AlDowayan opens this studio to the public, unfolding the process and materials of her research on the frequent car accidents that take the lives of female schoolteachers in Saudi Arabia. The first floor gallery includes works by other Arab artists, including Dia Azzawi, Farid Belkahia, Faraj Daham, Ismail Fattah, Wafa al-Hamad, Adam Henein, Saif al-Kuwari, Hussein Madi, Tariq Ibrahim, Baya Mahieddine, Mohamed el-Melehi, Sami Mohamed, Rafa al-Nasiri, Ahmed Nawar, Shirin Neshat, Khalifa al-Qattan, Munqith Said, Abbes Saladi, Ibrahim el-Salahi, Faisal Samra, Jewad Selim and Seif Wanly.Between February 7 and May 18, another exhibition, “Turbulence”, will bring to the forefront the diversity of artist Mona Hatoum’s work over the last 30 years. Work was going on at the museum in preparation for this exhibition.It consists of more than 70 works ranging from large-scale room installations such as “Light Sentence” (1992) and “Suspended” (2011) to smaller works on paper and sculptural objects such as “Projection” (2006) and “Untitled (wheelchair II)” (1999), respectively. It will also include some of the artist’s kinetic installations such as “+ and –” (1994-2004) and “Home” (1999). The exhibition is punctuated with a number of the artist’s photographs like “Van Gogh’s Back” (1995) and “Static Portraits” (Momo, Devrim, Karl) (2000), as well as documentations of early performances such as “The Negotiating Table” (1983), highlighting the diversity of artistic undertakings that span the artist’s prolific three-decade oeuvre.