Murakami-Ego

Last updated
Murakami-Ego
Genre Superflat Art, Pop Art
Venue ALRIWAQ Doha exhibition space
Location(s) Doha
Country Qatar
Organized by The Qatar Museums Authority
Website
http://ego.qma.org.qa

Murakami-Ego is the name of an exhibition by Japanese artist Takashi Murakami that took place in ALRIWAQ Doha exhibition space, Qatar, between 9 February and 24 June 2012. [1] It is the first solo exhibition for the artist in both Qatar and the Middle East, [2] as well as his biggest exhibition ever, showcasing over 60 works created since 1997, alongside new ones designed especially for the exhibition. [2]

Exhibition organized presentation and display of a selection of items or pictures

An exhibition, in the most general sense, is an organised presentation and display of a selection of items. In practice, exhibitions usually occur within a cultural or educational setting such as a museum, art gallery, park, library, exhibition hall, or World's fairs. Exhibitions can include many things such as art in both major museums and smaller galleries, interpretive exhibitions, natural history museums and history museums, and also varieties such as more commercially focused exhibitions and trade fairs.

Takashi Murakami Japanese artist

Takashi Murakami is a Japanese contemporary artist. He works in fine arts media as well as commercial media and is known for blurring the line between high and low arts. He coined the term "superflat", which describes both the aesthetic characteristics of the Japanese artistic tradition and the nature of post-war Japanese culture and society, and is also used for Murakami's artistic style and other Japanese artists he has influenced.

Qatar Sovereign state in Western Asia

Qatar, officially the State of Qatar, is a country located in Western Asia, occupying the small Qatar Peninsula on the northeastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula. Whether the sovereign state should be regarded as a constitutional monarchy or an absolute monarchy is disputed. Its sole land border is with neighbouring Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) monarchy Saudi Arabia to the south, with the rest of its territory surrounded by the Persian Gulf. An arm of the Persian Gulf separates Qatar from the nearby Bahrain.

Contents

Murakami-Ego is, additionally, the third and last chapter of a trilogy of exhibitions that started off in the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles, then moved to the Château de Versailles in Paris. [3] The exhibition was curated by Massimiliano Gioni, one of the most important contemporary Italian art critics and curators. [3]

Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles Art museum in Los Angeles, California

The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (MOCA) is a contemporary art museum with three locations in greater Los Angeles, California. The main branch is located on Grand Avenue in Downtown Los Angeles, near the Walt Disney Concert Hall. MOCA's original space, initially intended as a "temporary" exhibit space while the main facility was built, is now known as the Geffen Contemporary, in the Little Tokyo district of downtown Los Angeles. The Pacific Design Center facility is in West Hollywood.

Palace of Versailles French palace on the outskirts of Paris

The Palace of Versailles was the principal royal residence of France from 1682, under Louis XIV, until the start of the French Revolution in 1789, under Louis XVI. It is located in the department of Yvelines, in the region of Île-de-France, about 20 kilometres southwest of the centre of Paris.

Paris Capital of France

Paris is the capital and most populous city of France, with an area of 105 square kilometres and an official estimated population of 2,140,526 residents as of 1 January 2019. Since the 17th century, Paris has been one of Europe's major centres of finance, diplomacy, commerce, fashion, science, and the arts.

Background

In September 2010, Murakami launched his controversial exhibition at the Château de Versailles. [4] Sheikha Al-Mayassa Al Thani, the chairperson of the Qatar Museums Authority (which sponsored in part the Château de Versailles exhibition), visited the exhibition and decided to invite Murakami to bring his works to Qatar. [5]

Sheikha Al-Mayassa bint Hamad bin Khalifa Al-Thani is the sister of Qatar's ruling Emir Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, and daughter of the country's Father Emir Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani and former First Lady Moza bint Nasser. Al-Mayassa was declared the most influential person in art on ArtReview's Power 100, and prominently appears on the Time 100, and Forbes' The World's 100 Most Powerful Women. Al-Mayassa serves as Chairperson of Qatar Museums, and it was reported by Bloomberg that her annual acquisition budget on behalf of the organization is estimated at $1 billion.

Qatar Museums Authority

Qatar Museums is a Qatari government entity that overseas the Museum of Islamic Art (MIA), Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art, MIA Park, QM Gallery at Katara, ALRIWAQ DOHA Exhibition Space, the Al Zubarah World Heritage Site Visitor Centre, and archaeological projects throughout Qatar, as well as the development of future projects and museums that will highlight its collections across multiple areas of activity including Orientalist art, photography, sports, children's education, and wildlife conservation.

Collecting practices of the Al-Thani Family

The ruling family of Qatar, the House of Thani, is deeply involved in the field of art. For more than twenty years, some of its members have been accumulating numerous and precious pieces of artwork.

Initially, the exhibition was supposed to take place at the Doha Museum of Islamic Art, but the artist found the venue small for his works. The Qatar Museums Authority decided then to build a temporary exhibition hall for the exhibition, which would later become ALRIWAQ Doha exhibition space. [5]

Museum of Islamic Art, Doha Art Museum in Doha, Qatar

The Museum of Islamic Art is a museum located on one end of the seven kilometers long Corniche in the Qatari capital, Doha. As with the architect I. M. Pei's requirement, the museum is built on an island off an artificial projecting peninsula near the traditional dhow harbor. A purpose-built park surrounds the edifice on the Eastern and Southern facades while two bridges connect the Southern front facade of the property with the main peninsula that holds the park. The Western and Northern facades are marked by the harbor showcasing the Qatari seafaring past.

The exhibition took a few months to be installed, with Murakami using a team of 200 people to make sure he met the deadline for the opening. [6] Yet, the main piece at the exhibition, a 100-metre-long wall painting named (temporarily) Aarhat that was specially commissioned for the show, was not finished by the time the exhibition opened for the public on February 9, 2012. [6]

Main Themes

Murakami-Ego touches upon different themes, such as consumerism, interpretation, and exchange. [7] It marries the joyful aspects of pop culture with the sadness and darkness of natural disasters (and mainly the Fukushima nuclear disaster). It provides a glimpse into the personality of the artist and his ego, while showcasing his attachment to his origins and his religion, which is Buddhism. [6]

Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster nuclear disaster in Japan

The Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster was an energy accident at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant in Ōkuma, Fukushima Prefecture, initiated primarily by the tsunami following the Tōhoku earthquake on 11 March 2011. Immediately after the earthquake, the active reactors automatically shut down their sustained fission reactions. However, the ensuing tsunami disabled the emergency generators that would have provided power to control and operate the pumps necessary to cool the reactors. The insufficient cooling led to three nuclear meltdowns, hydrogen-air explosions, and the release of radioactive material in Units 1, 2 and 3 from 12 to 15 March. Loss of cooling also raised concerns over the recently loaded spent fuel pool of Reactor 4, which increased in temperature on 15 March due to the decay heat from the freshly added spent fuel rods but did not boil down to exposure.

Buddhism World religion, founded by the Buddha

Buddhism is the world's fourth-largest religion with over 520 million followers, or over 7% of the global population, known as Buddhists. Buddhism encompasses a variety of traditions, beliefs and spiritual practices largely based on original teachings attributed to the Buddha and resulting interpreted philosophies. Buddhism originated in ancient India as a Sramana tradition sometime between the 6th and 4th centuries BCE, spreading through much of Asia. Two major extant branches of Buddhism are generally recognized by scholars: Theravada and Mahayana.

Of all the objects in the exhibition, two particularly represent the themes of the exhibition: the Artist's giant inflatable self-portrait and the Aarhat wall painting.

The 6-metre high self-portrait shows the artist as a giant meditating Buddha greeting his visitors at the entrance of the exhibition space, [8] whereas the Aarhat wall painting depicts the suffering of the Japanese people following the Fukushima disaster, as well as how Buddhism helped many of them get the much needed spiritual relief and strength to face the loss of their relatives. [9]

It is important to note that, when asked about the main theme of his exhibition, Takashi Murakami insisted that it is about religion and how Buddhism can bridge the cultural gaps between nations. [9] He said: "The theme is religion and how people experience religion in different ways. Religion is important here and in Japan. I wanted to bridge the gap through the importance of religion". [9]

Objects

The exhibition included objects from Murakami's previous works alongside new ones. Objects are mostly sculptures, paintings and inflatable portraits representing the artist.

It is the giant inflatable portrait of the artist, located at the entrance of the ALRIWAQ Doha exhibition space. It is the first artwork that greets visitors to the exhibition. The inflatable is six-meter tall, and it depicts the artist in a seated-Buddha pose, extending his right hand in a gesture of welcome. [10]

Aarhat is a 100-metre long, three-metre high wall painting created especially for the exhibition. The painting is composed of four parts and is still unfinished. [6] One part depicts monks in a Buddhist prayer stature, another part shows monks in meditation and others flying around them. The painting was inspired by the work of a 19th-century Buddhist painter called Kano Kazunobu. [10] A total of 200 Japanese university art students were involved in drawing the painting. [10]

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References

  1. ↑ Murakami-Ego Exhibition Microsite Archived 2012-11-13 at the Wayback Machine .
  2. 1 2 Takashi Murakami: Ego at Al-Riwaq exhibition hall, Doha, Qatar in Designboom
  3. 1 2 Takashi Murakami “Ego” Exhibition @ Al Riwaq Exhibition Hall in Hypebeast, 14 February 2012
  4. ↑ Murakami Versailles in Cool Hunting, 13 September 2010
  5. 1 2 Art in the Middle East- Dubai & Doha
  6. 1 2 3 4 Hundred-metre dash in the Economist, 18 February 2012
  7. ↑ Qatar Museums Authority to Present Murakami – Ego A New Exhibition by Japanese Artist Takashi Murakami (Official Press Release) Archived 2012-06-29 at the Wayback Machine .
  8. ↑ See Murakami's "Ego" on Display Archived 2012-06-16 at the Wayback Machine . in Dudebox, 15 February 2012
  9. 1 2 3 TAKASHI MURAKAMI'S EGO in Dazed Digital
  10. 1 2 3 Takashi Murakami: A giant of contemporary art in the Daily Yomiur, 15 June 2012
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