Qatari artist Bouthayna Al Muftah with her work Echoes at an exhibition at the Mathaf, Arab Musuem of Modern Art. Picture by: Salim Matramkot / The Peninsula.
DOHA: Cultural narratives and collective memories are central to emerging Qatari artist Bouthayna Al Muftah’s (pictured) latest work launched yesterday at Project Space at Arab Museum of Modern Art in Doha.
On show until September 10, the project titled Bouthayna Al Muftah: Echoes is an exploration of her ongoing research about the recollection of memories, and a reflection on the rapid social and cultural changes that have taken place in Qatar over the past few decades.
Presented by Qatar Museums (QM) under the leadership of its Chairperson, H E Sheikha Al Mayassa bint Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, Bouthayna Al Muftah: Echoes, evokes shared local memories and questions current local cultural practices visibly influenced by technology and a growing sense of individualism.
In order to highlight this challenging topic, the artist contextualises the lyrical traditional game ‘tag ‘tag ‘tagya, a traditional group game played by boys and girls across the Arabian Gulf,’ and deconstructs its forms to redefine cultural narratives, offering a symbolic experience in a space in which the past and the present intersect.
“In this project, the artist interrogates the recollection of cultural memories and practices focusing on one of the games she used to play in the past which is less common today called tag ‘tag ‘tagya, represented by a circle on the floor made of ink on canvas. The books on the ceiling represent the individual memories of people, while the typography on the wall represents the collective memories,” Fatma Mostafawi, curator at Mathaf, explained to the media.
The pieces are reflected on a mirror on the wall whose purpose, Mostafawi said, is “to interrogate and have the visitor question the space and his existence in the space and the memory of the artist.”
“The mirror encapsulates this whole concept of the viewer literally being placed in my own thoughts, and watching the experience unfold, as if from another time or planet. This is my memory, and this is where I invite the audience to see themselves captured in this moment of time to pause for thought, reflection, and dialogue,” Al Muftah explained.
Al Muftah added: “It is my aspiration to take these stories and transform them to a non pragmatic way of expression which evokes the thoughts of the viewers and invites them to contemplate the past, the present and the future. The memories of these stories are fragments torn out of a book and are reconstructed to a much larger scale to emphasise their impact and importance in today’s local culture.”
“The canvas floor allows people walking to leave their marks on it which is a way for the artist to touch on the idea of shared memory. Everyone has memories but they also have individual prints,” added Mostafawi.
Commenting on the project, Abdellah Karroum, Director of Mathaf, said: “Qatar has seen an incredible transformation over the past few years, this has created a new generation of artists who are not only trying to make sense of this change, but are also looking to be part of it by redefining existing cultural narratives. Mathaf is proud to collaborate with a talented artist like Bouthayna and offer her a creative platform to experiment with new ideas and push the boundaries of what is known and of what can be.”
Al Muftah is a Qatari visual artist who received her BA from Virginia Commonwealth University School of Arts, Qatar in 2010. Upon her graduation, Al Muftah focused her artistic practice on printmaking, typography, and drawing which evolved into multiple mixed media installations.
Mathaf’s Project Space is dedicated to new tendencies in artistic production and emerging curatorial practices. It is one of several QM initiatives that push the boundaries of traditional museums and create ideal environments for knowledge production, dialogue and creativity.
