Airport installations
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Inspiration for travellers
In collaboration with Hamad International Airport (HIA), Qatar Museums has placed art objects created by local, regional and international artists throughout the airport.
The art will inspire the millions of visitors and residents flying through the airport, and prove that art can be enjoyed far beyond the confines of a gallery.
REGIONAL ARTISTS
Local and regional artists display their public art around the airport. Qatari artist, Ali Hassan has produced an iconic Desert Horse sculpture fusing classical techniques with abstraction, which lives just outside of the airport building. Ahmed Al Bahrani an Iraqi artist based in Qatar displays A Message of Peace to the World, in collaboration with Reach Out To Asia (ROTA) to highlight ROTA’s achievements. The large scale cube represents a formula designed to highlight how investment in economic security and education equates to the well-being of children. London based, Iraqi artist Dia Azzawi, who had a retrospective of his work with Qatar Museums, sculpted the Flying Man. The sculptures are based on the story of Abu Firnas, a historical figure from the Islamic world who was an early pioneer in experimenting with flight. Through these sculptures, al-Azzawi aims to create a monument to celebrate travelling in the modern age.
Other local and regional artists whose art is showcased around the airport include Mohammed Aljaida, Mubarak Al Malik, Amal Alatham, and Yousif.
A playful piece
Lamp Bear by Swiss artist Urs Fischer takes centre stage in the grand foyer leading to HIA's world-class duty-free hall. It is a 23-foot canary yellow teddy bear sculpted from bronze, that sits peacefully inside a lamp. It's a playful piece that humanises the space around it and reminds travellers of childhood or precious objects from home.
INTERNATIONAL ARTISTS
Artists from all around the world are showcasing their work within the airport. French artist, Jean-Michel Othoniel displays COSMOS, a large and intricate globe installation that symbolizes the path of travelers around the world taking inspiration from the oldest Islamic Astrolabe that can be found in MIA’s collection. Dutch artist Tom Claassen has produced a series of sculptures of the Oryx, which appear in herd formation in the arrivals hall. American sculptor Tom Otterness transforms public art into Other Worlds through playgrounds for children to discover and play. His style is often described as cartoonish and cheerful, and his pieces here are accompanied by miniature Arab figures.
Other featured international artists include KAWS, Adel Abdessemed, Maurizio Cattelan, Don Gummer, Keith Haring, Damien Hirst, Jenny Holzer, Marc Quinn, Anselm Reyle, Rudolf Stingel and Bill Viola.
The Nurseries of El Dorado is a representation of an almost mythical world. Comprising of a number of bronze sculptures, Quinn creates a series of hybrid plants by taking elements from different vegetation and carefully piecing them together, before casting them in bronze.
Rudolf Stingel’s work reflects on the passage of time. Stingel covered three surfaces with reflective, aluminium-faced insulation panels, before inviting members of the construction team to draw on the soft walls at the time of the airport’s construction. The walls were then cast in copper and electroplated with gold, before a number of pieces were selected for permanent display at the airport.
