VENICE: Her Excellency Sheikha Al Mayassa bint Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, Commissioner of the National Pavilion of Qatar and Chairperson of Qatar Museums, today opened untitled 2026 (a gathering of remarkable people); Rirkrit Tiravanija, Sopha Al-Maria, Tarek Atoui, Alia Faris, Fadi Kattan, Qatar’s official contribution to the 61st International Art Exhibition—La Biennale Di Venezia, presented on the site of the future permanent Qatar Pavilion in the Giardini della Biennale. The exhibition is organized by Qatar Museums and presented by Rubaiya Qatar, a nationwide multidisciplinary contemporary art quadrennial debuting this November.
At the official ceremony, Her Excellency welcomed dignitaries including Luigi Brugnaro, Mayor of the City of Venice and Khalid bin Youssef Al Sada, Ambassador of the State of Qatar to the Italian Republic; as well as renowned Qatari and international guests such as Mohammed Saad Al Rumaihi, Qatar Museums CEO; Sheikha Reem Al-Thani, Deputy CEO of ALRIWAQ, Public Art, and Rubaiya Qatar; Wael Shawky, acclaimed artist and Director of The FireStation; Klaus Biesenbach, Director of National Neuegalerie; Maurizio Cattelan, artist; Christophe Cherix, Director of the Museum of Modern Art; Nicholas Cullinan, Director of British Museum; Frida Escobedo, Architect; Lina Ghotmeh, Architect; Maja Hoffman, President of Luma Foundation; Glenn Lowry, Director Emeritus of the Museum of Modern Art; India Mahdavi, Head of Jury for Design Doha Prize 2026; and Wim Pijbes, Director of Droom en Daad Foundation.
“Our participation in La Biennale di Venezia started with the vision of our leadership, the Amir, His Highness Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani to encourage dialogue and share the talent of Qatar and the region with the world,” said Her Excellency Sheikha Al Mayassa bint Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani. “We are meeting in a difficult hour, when displacement, destruction, and destabilisation are daily words across our region and beyond. Culture connects what conflict tries to break apart and honours the humanity in each of us. That is why, for this first contribution by Qatar to Venice’s Art Biennale, we invited Rirkrit Tiravanija — a master of communal, interactive experiences — to imagine this exhibition. Under its tent, our community of artists will form, in the oldest and most generous meaning of the word, a tribe: a circle bound by hospitality, by craft, and by the simple conviction that to share a meal, a song, or a story is already to begin to understand one another.”
a gathering of remarkable people features an experimental narrative film by Qatari-American artist Sophia Al-Maria, entitled DAMAR TV (2026); Jerrican (2022–2026), a large-scale sculpture by Kuwaiti-Puerto Rican artist Alia Farid; as well as live musical performances organised by Lebanese artist Tarek Atoui and a culinary programme of Middle Eastern cuisine designed by Palestinian chef Fadi Kattan.
The exhibition opened with live music arranged by Atoui inspired by the structures of the takht (classical Arabic orchestra) and the wasla (musical suite) and featuring more than a half dozen musicians and singers representing seven nations. The performances were accompanied by culinary offerings prepared by Kattan along with chefs and authors Noof Al Marri of the Desert Rose Café at the National Museum of Qatar (Qatar), Noor Murad (Bahrain), and Majed Ali Almatrooshi (United Arab Emirates), and mixologists Anna Patrowicz (Poland/UK) and Vesta Kontrimaviciene (Lithuania) of akub London.
The exhibition is co-curated by Tom Eccles (Executive Director, Center for Curatorial Studies and the Hessel Museum of Art, Bard College) and Ruba Katrib (Chief Curator and Director of Curatorial Affairs, MoMA PS1).
