Worldwide: Wael Shawky’s “Crusades” in Qatar

Opening in 2010 in the framework of the 2030 development agenda was the Museum of Islamic Art (MIA), designed by the renowned architect I.M. Pei, given an imposing setting on the Corniche. The collection of Islamic art was assembled during the past decade, and contains precious handcrafted objects from all regions of the Middle East.

In the cool interior of the MIA, airy blinds in front of the large window of the cafeteria offer an impressive view of the new Doha in West Bay.

Every hour on the hour, a shuttle bus travels from the MIA to the Arab Museum of Modern Art (Mathaf) around 30 kilometers away, at the edge of the city in Doha's so-called Educational City.

En route by bus to Mathaf, in the vicinity of the completed Convention Center, you see one construction site after the next; nearly all of the international star architects are building here, among them Jean Nouvel, Rem Kolhaas, and Zaha Hadid.

After 45 minutes, you arrive at the Mathaf, opened in 2010, where the Wael Shawky exhibition is taking place. On the site fencing, posters advertise exhibitions held in the flat-topped building. The core of the Mathaf is its collection of art from Arab lands, which encompasses more than 6000 works, and was assembled by Sheik Hassan Al-Thani (*1960), the son of the Emir, and a former art student.

The opening reception takes place on March 15, 2015: everyone waits in front of the museum for the arrival of Sheikha Al Mayassa bint Hamad bin Khalifa Al-Thani. No one is permitted to enter the exhibition before Qatar's most powerful art collector, who is also a patron of Wael Shawky.

Wael Shawky guides Sheikha Al Mayassa through the exhibition. This important younger sister of Sheikh Hassan Al-Thani, who studied politics and literature in the US and France, has been much talked about for her spectacular purchases, which include Cézanne's "Card Players" for 250 million dollars. As Chair of the Qatar Museum Authority (QMA), she builds bridges between East and West. It is said that her acquisition budgets amounts to 1 billion US dollars annually, and that she plans to make Doha the world's greatest art hotspot.

The production of the glass puppets in the Berengo Studio on Murano near Venice was also substantially supported by the QMA. Manufactured there for Shawky's film alongside the glass marionettes were a number of immovable, static class figures. For these "extras," Shawky developed a completely new form of wall presentation for Doha.

Produced for the exhibition in Doha were a large number of works on paper, executed by Wael Shawky during his three-week stay in Doha in a studio at the newly created Fire Station for Artists in Residence. Using the most diverse pens and materials, the artist reflects here on the motifs of the medieval visual world of the third Cabaret Crusades film.

The presentation of the glass marionettes in specially manufactured display cases, most of them painted in turquoise and petrol blue, colors favored by Wael Shawky, bring the group together as an ensemble of great actors. After appearing in the film, the figures have now become individual sculptures, many decked out in new costumes.

In Doha, one feature of the information panels in the exhibition is conspicuous. We read the words: "Crusades and Other Stories" - isn't something missing from the title? We need to understand, the museum explains, why the word "Cabaret" had to be omitted. With its Western implications of bordellos, nightlife, criticism, and mockery, the word "Cabaret" doesn't sound very nice in Arab Doha...