Qatar Museums—the umbrella organization for the Gulf state’s museums and public art initiatives—has announced Rubaiya Qatar, a new international visual arts quadrennial launching in November 2026. The inaugural edition will take place across multiple venues in Doha through spring 2027, including Al Riwaq, the exhibition space recently renovated by renowned architects OMA.
To mark the pre-launch of the event, untitled 2025 (no bread no ashes), a major new installation by Thai artist Rirkrit Tiravanija, opened on October 30th at MIA Park. The participatory artwork centers on a temporary pavilion where visitors are invited to gather, bake, and share bread.
Tiravanija’s work incorporates regional and diasporic traditions with four styles of traditional ovens that are used across Qatar, South Asia, and West Asia. Activated every Friday through January 30, 2026, the project continues Tiravanija’s longstanding practice of engaging food and hospitality as forms of social exchange.
The quadrennial will be headlined by the exhibition “Unruly Waters,” curated by curators Tom Eccles and Ruba Katrib, and Shabbir Hussain Mustafa, along with ArtReview’s editor in chief, Mark Rappolt. The show takes its title from historian Sunil Amrith’s research into ecological histories and global migration. The exhibition will explore how water, movement, and displacement shape contemporary life.
“By speaking to specific geographies, and taking global weather systems and their effects on local environments as its guide, ‘Unruly Waters’ traces an understanding of globalism as a product of nature as much as commerce. Grounded in Qatar, the exhibition highlights the diversity of the local population and highlights the nation as a site of past, present, and future global connections,” said the lead curator of Rubaiya Qatar, Tom Eccles.
Rubaiya Qatar is directed by Sheikha Alanood Al Thani, under the leadership of Sheikha Reem Al Thani, and supported by Her Excellency Sheikha Al Mayassa bint Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, who described the quadrennial as “a foundation for cultural exchange” and “a continuation of Qatar Museums’ mission to link heritage with contemporary practice.”
The event adds to an increased focus on art programming for Qatar for 2026. In particular, Art Basel will hold an art fair in the country next February, directed by artist Wael Shawky. A new museum dedicated to the Indian artist Maqbool Fida Husain will also open in Doha later this month.
