Mira Nair to Baroda maharaja: Spectacular new desert rose museum’s Indian connection

DOHA

: Angular walls that make it impossible to hang a painting, floors that slope as if designed to keep visitors off keel and some oil drilling machines instead of the Cezannes and Rothkos that one was expecting from a $450-million museum that is the vision of one of the biggest collectors of art in the world, the Qatari royal family.


At the forefront of the ambition to turn Doha into a global cultural hub is Sheikha al-Mayassa al-Thani, the daughter of the emir and chairperson of

Qatar

Museums. Shaped like a desert rose and designed by award-winning French architect Jean Nouvel, the National Museum of Qatar is not the first art showcase that the Sheikha has overseen but it is certainly the grandest. “It’s a 21st century museum that aims to tell the story of Qatar’s past, present and future,” she says.

It certainly does look futuristic from both inside and outside. It’s slanted sandy beige walls showcasing not paintings but video installations that connect with the art and artefacts that seem suspended in air behind sheets of glass and provide an immersive experience.

From the earthiness of Bedouin life to the dramatic changes that oil discoveries brought, the videos capture Qatar's journey. One of the highlights of the museum is Indian American director Mira Nair’s film on the life of a pearl diver. With just a clothes clip on the nose, the divers go to the depths of the sea in search of elusive pearls. Besides the haunting songs that the divers sing before departing on their fourmonth journey, Nair also captures the pain of waiting for the womenfolk. One dramatic sequence juxtaposes the agony of childbirth with the long dive to the depths. Fortunately, both are rewarded by pearls.

The moving film does make it seem like “a museum with a heart” that museum director Sheikha Amna says they were aiming to create but one does wish that heart would accommodate not only the Baroda

Maharaja

’s pearl-laden carpet but also the poor Indian migrant who helped build Doha's architectural landmarks.

(The writer was in Doha at the invitation of National Museum of Qatar)