Qatar Museums announces inaugural Qatar Pavilion at 2024 Gwangju Biennale

Doha, Qatar: Qatar Museums announced on Thursday its inaugural Qatar Pavilion at the 15th edition of the Gwangju Biennale, the oldest contemporary art...

Doha, Qatar: Qatar Museums announced on Thursday its inaugural Qatar Pavilion at the 15th edition of the Gwangju Biennale, the oldest contemporary art biennale in South Korea. The first and only Arab country to have a standalone pavilion at the 2024 Gwangju Biennale, the Qatar Pavilion is curated by the National Museum of Qatar.

For its debut, the Qatar Pavilion will present the exhibition, Knock, Rain, Knock, exploring the significance of rain in Qatari culture and premiering newly commissioned artworks from seven Qatari and Qatar-based artists: Abdulrahman Al Muftah, Farah Al Sidiky, Fatima Abbas, Guillaume Rouseré, Hind Al Saad, Nada Elkharashi, and Sara Al Naimi. The Qatar Pavilion will be open to the public from September 7 until December 1, 2024 at Kwangju Bank Art Hall.

Salat al istisqaa’ a prayer performed to call for rain during droughts, forms the central theme of the exhibition. The artworks also delve into Arab and Islamic identity, water symbolism, and communal experiences within public spaces.

Sheikh Abdulaziz H. Al Thani, Director of the National Museum of Qatar, said, "The National Museum of Qatar is dedicated to preserving the heritage of our nation and making it a part of contemporary life. In these remarkable artworks, we see how a very deep aspect of our Islamic and traditional identity can inspire artistic interpretations that encourage us to strengthen our connection with the earth. We feel honoured to have been able to commission these works for the Gwangju Biennale, where the Qatar Pavilion will now put our culture into conversation with the entire art world.”

Knock, Rain, Knock is structured into distinct chapters, each highlighting the profound impact of rain on life in Qatar. The exhibition begins with "landscape", a section offering reflections on the country’s diverse terrain. Fatima Abbas’s glimpse of rain / لمحة غيث, a diptych depicting a year with rain and a year with drought and Farah Al Sidiky’s Place of Abandon, a two-channel video installation examines the narratives around places and spaces characterised as "deserts”.