Opening of the activities of "Qatar Image Festival: Photography" 2023

The Qatar Photo Festival: Photography opened today in its 2023 edition, a biennial festival that embraces innovative photographers and photography communities from Qatar, West Asia, and North Africa. During the launch of the festival, four exhibitions were opened: “Doha Friday Fashion” and “A Chance to Breathe” at M7, the Qatar Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship in Design, Fashion and Technology, and the installation “After” by Hadeer Omar in Al-Kout Castle, and then the installation “My Mother’s House”. Lulwa / Lamshael Al-Hijazi in the Baraha Al-Jufairi Council, and the exhibitions and installations will be available to the public from March 15 to May 20. This festival, organized by Qatar Museums, is part of the “Qatar Creates” initiative, the national cultural initiative that continues throughout the year, and which sponsors and promotes cultural activities in Qatar and celebrates its diversity. Qatar Museums established a photography festival under the patronage of Her Excellency Sheikha Al Mayassa bint Hamad Al Thani, Chair of the Board of Trustees of Qatar Museums, which reflects the commitment to nurturing artistic talents, developing the arts economy, and supporting the country’s creative sector. Her Excellency Sheikha Al Mayassa bint Hamad Al Thani said in a statement today: "Photography can tell stories and convey meaning in an unparalleled way. Despite the popularity of photography and the ease of its practice, this medium is rarely dealt with as an art form, studied and discussed with practitioners, critics and enthusiasts of photography, especially in the Arab region. As we prepare for the Biennale /Tasweer/ The second, we are adding success to the successes of 2021, by presenting a package of prominent exhibitions, and a major platform that attracts creators from Qatar and all over the world to display their work through it, in addition to extensive programs for the benefit of the public.". In M7, he presents / photography / the exhibition / Fashion Friday Doha /, which is a collaborative project founded by Khaled Al-Baih and Aparna Jayakumar in 2017 via the social networking platform / Instagram /, in which they photograph expatriate workers living in Qatar, and interview them in days Friday, Day of Rest Using fashion as a lens, hundreds of photographs and interviews for the project tell stories of the cultural diversity of residents who came to Qatar with dreams and aspirations. The second exhibition at M7, A Chance to Breathe, presents the work of three Rohingya refugees, Uzimol Hassun, Dil Kayas, and Omal Khair, who documented their personal experiences inside Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh, the largest refugee camp in the world. In 2018, Doha Debates collaborated with The human rights organization Fortify Rights to equip and support these three talented photographers, and a 23-minute documentary film entitled / Exodus 2022 / produced by Doha Debates will be shown on the sidelines of the exhibition, and grants will continue throughout the activities of / Photography 2023 /, where artists will take pictures inside Cox’s Bazar During the month of Ramadan and Eid al-Fitr, in cooperation with the artist / Doha Friday Fashion / Aparna Jayakumar and Shaima Al Tamimi, and the photos will be added to the exhibition / Chance to Breathe / over the period of its presentation, in a dialogue linking this exhibition to its counterpart / Doha Friday Fashion /, which is also in M7. For his part, the photographic artist Khalifa Ahmed Al-Obaidly, director of the Qatar Photo Festival: Photography, said that the festival presents a dynamic and interconnected program that includes various exhibitions, installation works commissioned in heritage sites, cultural exchanges, workshops, and more, noting that it will be repeated Showcasing two installations reviving heritage sites in Qatar, in addition to exhibitions at M7. And in Al-Kout Fort, on the outskirts of Souq Waqif, the “Before After” exhibition presents an immersive installation by Qatar-based artist Hadeer Omar, in collaboration with Sonic Generation, an art group that works on hybrid media. The collection was launched by Michael Hirschrod, Simone Moscolino, and multidisciplinary designer Katia Kolovia. In this site-specific installation, Hadeer Omar relied on the surroundings of Souq Waqif as a source of inspiration, by weaving traditional and contemporary aspects of daily life, translating and transforming them into surreal, immersive environments. The artist creates a strong sense of the countless sensory experiences in the market, through Capturing images and sounds, all uniquely designed in the spaces designated for the castle. In the Baraha Al-Jufairi Council, the artwork / My Mother Lulwa’s House / is erected, which is an installation work by the Qatari artist Mashael Al-Hijazi. In restoring the spirit of simplicity and family atmosphere in this traditional Qatari house between the corners of the majlis, the mother’s room and the liwan (the courtyard of the house).