Why there is no Qatar pavilion at the Venice Biennale yet?

Rome wasn’t built in a day. Despite the conspicuous investments in visual arts that Doha has made during the last decade, and despite Sheikha Al Mayassa bint Hamad bin Khalifa Al-Thani being considered today as one of the main contemporary art collectors – tomorrow she is going to receive the StellaRe Prize at the Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo in Turin –, also this year Qatari artists will not be represented in Venice. But even if most of the other Middle East countries are already taking part to the mother of any Biennial, according to insiders the reason for this surprising absence is not due to any international political intrigue.

 

On the contrary, Qatar Museum Authority is not yet among the participants to the Venice Biennial because of prudence: they just don’t think that Qatari artists are ready to act successfully on this extraordinary important stage, and so they prefer to wait until they will actually be. This move seems to be not only prudent, but also wise. The notorious motto by Pierre De Cubertain doesn’t apply to art: here to take part is simply not enough.

 

Nevertheless rumours report that an official request letter for an exhibition space at the Arsenale has been recently submitted to the Biennial board. If this turned out to be true it would be a good news. In this case the first step of Qatar into Venice would likely be taken with architecture. The presence of Zaha Hadid and Rem Koolhass at the Art of Tomorrow conference that took place last March in Doha could be an evidence of its intent. Effectively, starting from architecture would be the natural consequence of Qatar’s great investments in real estate and the hosting of 2022 FIFA World Cup.

 

While waiting for the rumours to be confirmed by Italian and Qatari authorities, it should be said that also two leading artists such as Jeff Koons and Olafur Eliasson participated at the same conference, along with curator Hans Ulrich Obrist. This latter was also among the curators of the recent exhibition dedicated to Brazilian and Qatari artists at the Qatar Museums Gallery Alriwaq – that is going to be followed by a show focused ofTurkish and Qatari artists. Alea iacta est.

 

 

May 1, 2015