‘What’s between, between?’ exhibition reimagines Gulf futures at NU-Q Media Majlis

Doha, Qatar: The future is not one shared or fixed idea, but something experienced differently by each person, shaped by their own life and circumstan...

Doha, Qatar: The future is not one shared or fixed idea, but something experienced differently by each person, shaped by their own life and circumstances.

The Media Majlis Museum at Northwestern University in Qatar’s latest exhibition ‘What’s between, between?’ reflects this “in-between” reality through a deliberately simple yet chaotic visual style. It also centers Arabic and presents artists through their lived experiences of in-betweenness, rather than by nationality or social labels alone.

Curated by Jack Thomas Taylor, curator of art, media and technology, and Amal Zeyad Ali, assistant curator, the exhibition opens to the public today(January 26) and will run through May 14, 2026.

Gulf futurism and anxiety of unknown

Speaking during a press preview, NU-Q Dean and CEO Marwan M. Kraidy said the exhibition draws on the idea of Gulf Futurism, placing it within a broader historical and technological context. “Futurism is a movement that began a long time ago, originally in Italy, and it is closely associated with media and technology,” he said. “Humans often imagine the future as the control of space and time through technology. The future can make us anxious because it is unknown and uncontrollable, so we project technologically as a way to understand it, imagine it, and shape it.”