The upcoming Lusail Museum will be a place of ideas, meetings and encounters, exchange and identity, said its Director Dr. Xavier Dectot on the sidelines of the press preview of ‘Lusail Museum: Tales of a Connected World’ exhibition at QM Gallery Al Riwaq.
“We are not focusing so much on the present but on the future of Qatar as a cultural hub,” Dr. Dectot said. He is also curating the exhibition running until April 1, 2023.
Dr. Dectot emphasised that the upcoming museum houses art pieces from all around the world, and it “centres to meeting, inter-connectedness and cultural exchanges”.
Dr. Xavier Dectot
The exhibition which opened recently includes 247 objects, many drawn from Qatar Museums’ vast collection of paintings, drawings, sculptures, photographs, rare texts, and decorative arts.
Compared to a traditional museum, the exhibition which is a preview of the vision for the new Lusail Museum, its architectural design, and its world-class collection of art, features an immersive, interactive digital trail, combining modern and traditional arts.
“We needed to go beyond the traditional vision of a museum and we wanted to look at all forms of cultural products; that’s why we brought music, cinema, fashion. We are the museum of ideas, we are a different museum, we also want to be different on the approach of the collection,” explained Dr. Dectot.
The Director said: “The original collection of the museum is the collection of Orientalist paintings – that’s 19th century representations of Arab world by European artists, and we’ve added many things.”
The exhibition has eight sections and underscores the past, present, and future of Lusail through images of archaeological remains, the Lusail Heritage site, and Lusail as a flourishing city.
The central space in the exhibition is dedicated to the architecture of the new museum and presents the design process through projections and a large floor installation showcasing working models, concept images and material samples.
Tickets for the ‘Lusail Museum: Tales of a Connected World’ exhibit ioncan be purchased at Qatar Museums website. One Pass Holder and children aged 16 below can enter free of charge. A regular ticket costs QR50.
Construction of the Lusail Museum, which was designed by Pritzker Prize–winning architects Herzog & de Meuron, will begin in 2023. It will be built in Lusail, the residence of Qatar’s founding statesman, diplomat, and poet, Sheikh Jassim bin Mohammed bin Thani.
