Qatar Museums Opens New Exhibition to Preview Upcoming Lusail Museum

Her Excellency Sheikha Al Mayassa bint Hamad Al Thani, Chairperson of Qatar Museums’ Board of Trustees, inaugurated, on Sunday, October 23, the exhibition “Lusail Museum: Tales of a Connected World”, which will run until April 1, 2023, in the presence of His Excellency Sheikh Hassan bin Mohamed Al Thani, President of the Arab Museum of Modern Art, a number of VIPs and artists.

The exhibition "Lusail Museum: Tales of a Connected World", which is hosted by Qatar Museums Gallery - Al Riwaq, is considered a prelude to the new Lusail Museum, which is scheduled to begin construction of its building in 2023, as it gives an overview of its arrangements, architectural design, and its international art collection.

The exhibition is also part of the activities of "Qatar Creates", the national cultural initiative that extends throughout the year, as the exhibition opens its doors in conjunction with the beginning of the influx of visitors to Doha to attend the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022.

The Lusail Museum building was designed by the Pritzker Prize-winning architectural firm and will be located in Lusail, the birthplace of Sheikh Jassim bin Mohammed bin Thani, the statesman, diplomat, and poet considered the founder of the State of Qatar.

Dr. Xavier Dicteau, director of the Lusail Museum, and Kholoud Al-Fahd, art curator at the museum, gave extensive explanations about the artworks in the exhibition, during the media tour.

Kholoud Al-Fahd, the art curator at Lusail Museum, said in a statement to Qatar News Agency (QNA) that the exhibition "Lusail Museum: Stories of a World that Brings Us Together", consists of 247 pieces, and sheds light on the past, present and future of Lusail City through images of antiquities, the Lusail Heritage Site, and Lusail today as a thriving city, it also gives an insight into what the Lusail Museum will look like.

Films play a pivotal role in the exhibition - where visitors will see movie clips, still images, costumes and models from Hollywood films, including the classic film The Thief of Baghdad (1924), as well as the Cleopatra (1963) and the Arab Lawrence (1962) and the famous Star Wars films.

The world cinema classics shown also include: “Zeinab Hates Snow” (2016) by Tunisian director Kawthar Ben Hania and “Taste of Cherry” (1997) by Iranian director Abbas Kiarostami.

Titian’s painting “Portrait of Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent” (1843-1844) will be one of the main exhibits that explore the enduring legacy of global encounters, along with other important paintings such as “An Arab in Front of a Hanging Carpet” by Mariano Fortuny Marsal, and “The Moroccan Bride” by Jose Tabero. Barrow (1860) and/Outside the tomb of Sultan Selim in Istanbul/ by Rudolf Ernst (1885).

As for the art pieces that embody ideas, innovations, and technological progress across the Indian Ocean world, they include the Nuremberg Chronicle (1493), a rock crystal chess piece from Egypt during the tenth to eleventh centuries AD and one of the first printed editions of the “Book of Wonders” For Marco Polo (1529).