ID :
396893
Sun, 02/14/2016 - 08:36
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Qatar Museums Inaugurate Art Exhibition in Spain

Doha, February 13 (QNA) - Under the patronage of Chairperson of Qatar Museums, HE Sheikha Mayassa bint Hamad Al-Thani inaugurated today an exhibition entitled "Looking at the World Around You." The exhibition will display contemporary works of more than 160 paintings, sculptures, photographs, installations and video installations by 34 different artists. It will be on show for the first time at the Santander Art Gallery in Financial City, Boadilla del Monte, Madrid, from 9 February to 19 June 2016. The exhibition will be held in cooperation with Banco Santander. A number of featured artists will display their work, including Etel Adnan, Qatari artists Yousef Ahmad and Faraj Daham, Mona Hatoum, Hassan Sharif, Shirin Neshat, Wael Shawky, Youssef Nabil and Ghada Amer. Commenting on the occasion, HE Sheikha Mayassa said that art can create new opportunities for dialogue and exchange and prompt new understandings of human history. Her Excellency was full of praise regarding the collaboration with Banco Santander, saying that "it speaks to the privileged role that art can play in building bridges and opportunities whose significance extends well beyond the museum walls". The exhibition explores the connection between art and history through multiple works, from Ren? Magritte's vision of the Orient in Shehrazade to the reflections of today's most dynamic, engaged Arab artists Mona Hatoum, Amal Kenawy, Manal AlDowayan and others on the problems and changes affecting the Arab world. The way individuals perceive the world around them was the central idea that guided the curator, Abdellah Karroum, in the process of choosing and interrelating the portraits, photographs, sculptures, installations and video installations that comprise this show. Commenting on the exhibition, Karroum said "When Inji Efflatoun painted her self-portrait in prison or her fellow citizens in the countryside in Egypt, she was also portraying a society at a moment of historical changes that shape and reshape individual lives. Similarly, Ismail Fattah's dark portraits reflect burning lives, while Hassan bin Mohammed bin Ali Al Thani's work speaks of wars and...destruction." He added that such work found in the exhibition represented "an invitation to look again and see anew; an invitation, in other words, to rethink the alignment of histories and how to make sense of the world today". (END)

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