Sumayya Vally, architect, Johannesburg
Rayyane Tabet, artist, Beirut
Shezad Dawood, artist, London
Moderator: Sheikha Reem Al Thani, Deputy CEO, Al Riwaq, Public Art, and Rubaiya Qatar, Qatar Museums, Doha
This panel explored how artists redefine public space and audiences, creating, contesting, and expanding the idea of a ‘public.’ From participatory projects and site-specific interventions to immersive installations, the discussion focused on how art can generate dialogue, connect communities, and expose social, cultural, or political gaps.
Sumayya Vally is the principal of Counterspace, an architecture and research practice exploring hybrid identities and spatial relationships, with a particular interest in the complex relationships between territories and places. A World Economic Forum Young Global Leader and TIME100 honoree, she is the youngest architect commissioned to design the Serpentine Pavilion in London. Vally is an honorary professor of practice at the Bartlett School of Architecture, and an honorary fellow of the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada.
Drawing from experience and self-directed research, Rayyane Tabet explores stories that offer an alternative understanding of major sociopolitical events through individual narratives. Informed by his training in architecture and sculpture, his work investigates paradoxes in the built environment and its history by way of installations, interventions, and performances that reconstitute the perception of physical and temporal distance.
Shezad Dawood is an interdisciplinary artist whose practice connects art, science, and environmental advocacy, spanning painting, textiles, sculpture, film, and digital media. Fascinated by ecologies and architecture, his work takes a philosophical approach, asking questions and exploring alternative futures through what Dawood describes as ‘world-building.’ His practice is animated by research, working with multiple audiences and communities to delve into narrative, history, and embodiment.
Sheikha Reem Al-Thani oversees Qatar’s leading arts and architecture exhibition platform and the Rubaiya Qatar quadrennial, and has played a key role in shaping the country’s public art vision through large-scale, site-specific commissions and international collaborations. With over 15 years of experience, she has led more than 100 major exhibitions and is an adjunct professor at VCUarts Qatar.
Art Basel Conversations x Qatar Creates Talks
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