This inaugural show brings together 87 exhibitors, with more than half coming from across the MENASA region.
Art Basel’s debut in Qatar is the outcome of long-term commitment to building a cultural ecosystem, encompassing institutions, collections, educational initiatives and systems of support. For a fair with a history spanning more than five decades, Doha marks a calculated step into a region whose artistic output has gained increasing momentum, while remaining connected to Art Basel’s global constellation of galleries, collectors and museums.
Shaped by the curatorial vision of Egyptian-born artist Wael Shawky, the inaugural edition of Art Basel Qatar moves away from the conventional booth format that we see across the world regularly, in favour of an open exhibition model. Artist presentations are organised around a unifying theme, 'Becoming', which reflects on humanity’s ongoing state of change and the forces that influence belief, our lived experience and the ways meaning is produced.
Beyond the main exhibition, this edition of Art Basel in Qatar introduces a dedicated Special Projects programme, comprising ten ambitious, site-responsive works. Installed across prominent cultural institutions and public sites in Downtown Doha, these commissions engage directly with the fair’s overarching theme, curated to collectively represent the most expansive public works initiative undertaken by Art Basel to date.
Its long-term place on the international circuit will be shaped by developments that follow the opening days, but its presence alone signals change. Once more, the art market is recalibrating where its weight and attention lie.
