myworkinqatar

public art and cultural sensitivity 

At Virginia Commonwealth University in Qatar is a space that appears just to have happened. Is it a hallway that does not lead anywhere, or is it a break out space too small to furnish? The materials are nice, decorative floor tiles, solid wood railing and a clerestory window bringing in lots of light to this white oddity of a space. The space appears cared for, but unplanned. Clearly this was not the intention of the architect, but rather something that happened due to poor planning and rapid development, which we see a lot of in Qatar. I call this space the Awkward Space.

The Awkward Space has proven to be remarkably useful in the context of a design university in the Gulf. Its polished features entices even the neatest student to claim public space for a temporary installation. I would go so far as to say that this space has played a significant role in encouraging students to claim the hallways as their own. In an undemocratic society where privacy is of major concern and the hierarchy of people is carefully regarded, the students don’t have it in them naturally to claim public space as theirs, not even inside their own University. 

This sort of creative guerrilla activity would have been impossible when I first arrived to Doha. Many of our students are brought up in a culture where other people make things for them, so for them to take this step to actually paint the walls and build a show is a progress in itself, and when this happens at their own initiative in a public space, something important takes place when the students suddenly begin acting back on their environment. Today, students are no longer shy to possess any of the public areas with their work, and the atmosphere of the building feels like a proper design university where design students claim ownership of their space. 

The Awkward Space has been subject to controversy and heated debate. When a Brazilian guest artist made a performance in the space against the backdrop of two large breasts painted on the wall the more conservative students decided that they had enough and threatened to go to the media. The reasoning being that this was a public space that people has to pass by, possibly a Qatari student with her father or other guests from outside, it was not an art gallery that one may choose to enter. The discussion went wild in social media and in the studios. The Dean took action so the images in the newspaper showed only a covered installation. The recently hired Chair of the Art Department was about to get fired and an expert on cultural sensitivity was hired as a consultant for the university. 

What made this situation problematic in the light of Qatari culture was the fact that public space got merged with gallery space. Qatar does not have freedom of speech. A level of nudity is accepted in a gallery space that people can choose not to enter, or in art history books that people can choose not to read, but to confront people with nudity in the semi public context of a hallway in an art university was not accepted. I too found the drawing insensitive to the culture we are set in, and it surprised me that the Brazilian artist was allowed to go ahead making it. Maybe the inaccessibility of a white cube gallery serves an important purpose in a conservative culture, one of framing the context for the general public. 

Art in public space is a hot topic in Qatar. Her Highness Sheickha Mayasaa is investing billions of dollars in public art by artists such as Richard Serra and Damien Hirst but there appears to be a disconnection between the royal families love for international art and the general publics views on what belongs in their public space. The monumental Damien Hirst sculptures framing the entrance to Sidra International Research Centre, depicting the stages of a fetus developing inside a womb, was covered for over a years. The big covered forms were highly visible to the public. 

Qatar Museums Authority, the institution responsible for purchasing the art work states that "placed in front of Sidra Medical Centre, which is dedicated to women and children, the venue and piece empower each other. It is a particularly audacious commission, and one that will stimulate debate at home and abroad for years to come." Behind QMA stands HH Sheikha Mayasaa with a true passion for art and a genuine strive to make Qatar the art hub of the region. Thank's to her highness initiative 20 years ago Virginia Commonwealth School of the Arts was established in Qatar. 

In spite of the controversies around the Awkward Space, students are using it more than ever. Students are designing the space by claiming it theirs and making it useful for a period of time. They are taking over the space, adapting the space to fit their needs through a process of appropriation. The objects that are brought in and the pieces that are made for the space are adapted to this particular hallway setting. I believe they share my attraction to this unpretentiousness semi-public space that is considerably more social than a white cube gallery. Here you are not trespassing to visit the art, but rather the opposite, the art is trespassing in to the public hallway, and the function of this space is to act as that social link in-between the individual artists and the public.