The Tamesis
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here Dohait is almost impossible not to know Art Basel In town. The streets of Msheireb district were lined with red banners announcing the opening of the show, which will open on Tuesday at the M7 building, the Design District and other nearby venues.
This is an important moment for arts and culture in Qatar, and its significance extends far beyond the arrival of the new fair. this national museum is celebrating its 50th anniversary; this Museum of Islamic Art This is already the 15th session. In October, Qatar created a week-long celebration to celebrate both milestones. In this sense, Art Basel is like a pinnacle. Qatar and Art Basel shared a key moment in the early 1970s: the fair opened in Switzerland in 1970; a year later, Qatar gained independence from its British protectorate status. Five years later, the country opened its National Museum on the site of the old Amiri Palace.
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Art Basel’s arrival in Doha highlights how the cultural landscape here has always evolved to blend imported and local culture – with an increasing emphasis now on the latter.
To celebrate its anniversary, the Museum of Islamic Art is launching an exhibition that reflects Qatar’s ambitions by telling the story of the museum’s extraordinary architecture. In the 1990s, Qatar held an architectural competition and selected a winning proposal – but that was just the beginning. The emir was not satisfied and determined to bring Ieoh Ming Pei Retired for this project. In 1999, Pei was persuaded to submit his proposal, albeit on one firm condition: Qatar would need to build him an island. The original site was in the city, but Pei foresaw Doha’s rapid expansion and feared his building would be overshadowed. To really stand out, it needed to sit off the Corniche and have its own land in the Arabian Gulf. A retired star architect often gets what he wants, and Pei did.
The Museum of Islamic Art is an ingenious synthesis of Islamic and Western architectural traditions and a study in scale, now accessible via a bridge. Pei was right: Doha expanded, but when he died in 2019, his building remained the city’s most visible landmark, and it remains so today – a monument to his vision and to the country that commissioned it.
The museum’s story reflects how Qatar engages with global talent and institutions: if asked, Give me the resources to not only provide the best service, but to provide the best service to youthe answer is often yes. This week, we’ll take a look at what Art Basel is doing with that task.
What is already clear is that international brands meet local context, with the show featuring less than half the exhibitors of its Swiss flagship; one artist, Will Shockeyas a director; and a hybrid format that combines individual presentations with open layouts. As Shockey said at a press conference on Monday, the aim is to “put each artist’s practice into context” and ask visitors to “slow down and go deeper.” (Or, as Art Basel CEO Noah Horowitz quipped at the same event: “It may look like a biennale, but everything is for sale.”)
It’s also clear that this is not a short-term commitment. The press conference opens, Sheikha Al Mayasa bint Hamad bin Khalifa Al ThaniQatar Museums chairman announces Herzog & de Meuron’s 366 Lusail Museum Located on Almaha Island (about half an hour’s drive north along the coast and expected to open in 2029), it will serve as an expansion venue for Art Basel Qatar. Later, she went to the Doha Convention and Exhibition Center to have a conversation with the director of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art Michael Gowan Qatar Web Summit. It’s one of about five international conferences and events taking place in the country this week, and in its own way it puts Art Basel into perspective
