NATIONAL MUSEUM OF QATAR

source:jeannouvelcom
Qatar is a young nation in the Persian Gulf, a peninsula, a tongue surrounded by water where the desert reaches into the sea.

The Qatari descend from a nomadic Arabian people who settled in this maritime desert.

Some became fishermen, others hunted for pearls. Some looked to the nation’s hidden treasures, the resources that lay beneath the sand or under the sea. Others, inspired by their country’s central location in the Gulf, began to talk, to communicate, to reach out. The impulse for this metamorphosis came from Doha. A glance at photographs of Doha in the 1950s and 1960s, compared with today, is sufficient to understand how much this part of the world has changed. From a little village, it has become a capital. What could be more natural, then, than the desire to testify, to talk about identification, about the evolving identity of this country as it reveals itself on the sensitive paper of history? And what could be more logical than to give concrete expression to this identification process in a National Museum of Qatar that will relate the physical, human and economic geography of the country, together with its history?

One place was symbolically destined to fulfill this role: the cradle of the Al Thani family in Doha; a modest, noble, simple palace from where this twentieth-century adventure began. It stands at the city’s southern entrance, the busiest urban gateway as it also welcomes visitors arriving from the airport.

The architectural study which initially was coupled with the programmatic study, brought to light the underlying paradox of this project: to show what is hidden, to reveal a fading image, to anchor the ephemeral, to put the unspoken into words, to reveal a history which has not had the time to leave a mental imprint; a history that is a present in flight, an energy in action. The National Museum of Qatar is proof patent of how intense this energy is. Of course it will be home to the traditional geological and archaeological artifacts; of course tents, saddles and the dishes will bear witness to nomadic life; of course there will be fishermen’s utensils, boats and nets. Most importantly, though, it will spark an awareness that could only otherwise be encountered, experienced, after months spent in the desert, in pursuit of the particularities that elude our grasp except when the whims of Time and Nature allow. Or by taking an helicopter or 4WD to discover the contrasts and stretches of beach of the Qatari peninsula. Everything in this museum works to make the visitor feel the desert and the sea. The museum’s architecture and structure symbolize the mysteries of the desert’s concretions and crystallizations, suggesting the interlocking pattern of the bladelike petals of the desert rose.

A nomadic people builds its capital city and talks about it through this emblematic monument built with the most contemporary construction tools (steel, glass and fiber concrete), and will communicate through high-definition cinema, incorporating visitors’ movements into its museography : this museum is a modern-day caravanserai. From there you leave for the desert and you return from it bringing back treasures: images that remain forever engraved on your memory.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
source:
A series of colliding discs form the external shell and define the internal programme of Atelier Jean Nouvel’s National Museum of Qatar, which is based on a mineral formation called the “desert rose”.

The project led by Pritzker Prize-winning architect Jean Nouvel is located on a prominent site within a newly developed civic quarter that connects it with other cultural institutions including I M Pei’s Museum of Islamic Art.

More than a decade in the making, the National Museum of Qatar is designed to tell the story of the country’s history and its ambitions for the future.

“This is a 21st-century museum that allows you to experience the exhibits in three dimensions,” said the architect at the museum’s inauguration. “It aims to be a destination for people from around the world that reflects the contemporary spirit of Qatar.”

The building’s dramatic shape is inspired by the desert rose – a mineral formation created when minerals crystallise below the surface of a salt basin into an array of flat plates resembling rose petals.

A steel frame that spans an insulated waterproof superstructure supports the interlocking discs, which are clad in a glass-fibre reinforced concrete with a sandy hue that evokes the desert landscape.

“The desert rose is a symbol of the desert because it’s an architecture created by time and the desert itself,” Nouvel added. “Nobody knows what the inside of a desert rose looks like, and we created a typology of intersections that makes you question what is inside it.”

Sections of the building’s shell protrude outwards to shade areas of a central courtyard, and to protect the interiors from direct sunlight.

Gaps between the discs accommodate frameless glass openings that provide views towards the courtyard, the museum’s gardens and the nearby Doha Bay.

Nouvel explained that the radical form seeks to express Qatar’s progressive cultural outlook and technological capabilities, which have contributed to its rapid expansion in recent years.

“It’s important to consider that architecture is a testimony of time and the museum is a testimony of this time in Qatar, which is a very powerful period,” said the architect.

“The symbology of the desert rose is important but we also wanted to reflect modernity, which is achieved through a change of scale and the creation of something that is a real technical feat.”

The museum’s 52,000-square-metre floor area enfolds the early 20th-century palace of Sheikh Abdullah bin Jassim Al Thani, which has been extensively renovated and integrated into the visitor experience.

The building’s plan forms an elliptical circuit that leads visitors through a sequence of galleries occupying the irregular spaces between the interlocking geometric planes.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
source:vanityfairit
Come si celebra il passato di un paese giovane tutto proteso verso il futuro? Questa è la domanda a cui il neonato National Museum of Qatar, disegnato dall’architetto francese Jean Nouvel, ha voluto rispondere.

Andando in giro per Doha la prima cosa che salta all’occhio sono i cantieri in corso. La maggior parte dei grattacieli che compongono oggi lo skyline della città non esisteva 10 anni fa e il panorama di oggi non sarà lo stesso tra 5 anni. Tutto è nuovo, tutto è in movimento. Cosa può quindi contenere un museo etnografico qui?

«Mentre viaggiamo verso il futuro, sentiamo la necessità di concentrarci sulla nostra identità» ha spiegato la Sheikha Al Mayassa bin Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, presidente di tutti i musei del Qatar. «Abbiamo voluto trasformare la storia del Qatar in un’esperienza immersiva, mostrare che il nostro è un viaggio» ha aggiunto la Sheikha Amna bin Abdulaziz bin Jassim Al Thani, Direttore del museo.

Visto dall’esterno, l’imponete edificio di Jean Nouvel appare come un’immensa rosa del deserto «preziosa e unica, aleatoria seppur precisa» ha spiegato l’architetto. L’interno è un susseguirsi di stanze quasi nascoste una dall’altra, muri obliqui, spazi piccoli seguiti da stanze con soffitti monumentali.

Più ci si inoltra nei suoi meandri, più si capisce perché ha richiesto 8 anni per vedere la luce. Non è solo una questione di complessità strutturale, ma anche di discorso narrativo. Al centro di tutto c’è il bisogno di sentirsi orgogliosi delle proprie origini.

Si parte dagli animali autoctoni, per poi passare alle imbarcazioni in legno, i tappeti, gli abiti tradizionali, fino ai gioielli reali per finire con la celebrazione dei condotti petroliferi, che hanno segnato la rinascita e la grande prosperità di questo paese, ma hanno anche imposto un cambiamento radicale rapidissimo alla sua società.

Il fil rouge sono i filmati, le voci degli anziani, le suggestioni audio visive. «Le collezioni etnografiche sono completate da testimonianze» ha spiegato Nouvel, «e dai materiali tradizionali come il legno, che si ritrova nei modellini in tutto il museo».«L’architettura non è solo una questione di stile, ma di senso» ha concluso. E questo museo un senso ce l’ha, è l’orgoglio.

Orgoglio di un passato, per quanto recente, di cui andare fieri. Non a caso il percorso museale si conclude nell’antico Palazzo Reale (dei primi del 900), che è stato inglobato nella struttura, oggi rinato come futuro teatro di eventi e spazio per nuove idee. E con due donne così forti al comando, ci aspettiamo grandi cose.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
source:lepointfr
Les journalistes du monde entier acheminés à grands frais à Doha sont priés de ne pas diffuser leurs images et leurs textes tant que l’émir lui-même, le cheikh Tamim ben Hamad Al Thani, n’a pas lui-même pu officiellement découvrir « son » musée. Depuis que, à l’été 2017, Riyad et ses alliés ont mis sous embargo le petit émirat, le portrait très graphique de l’émir qatari en cow-boy solitaire du Golfe, mèche au vent et menton volontaire, s’affiche partout sur les vitres miroitantes des gratte-ciel, les plages arrière des voitures et les vitrines des grandes surfaces de Doha en signe de résistance au blocus.

Ce mercredi 27 mars, l’imposant musée national du Qatar, commandé en 2003 par le cheik Hamad ben Khalifa Al Thani – père de l’actuel émir – à l’architecte français Jean Nouvel, ouvre enfin ses portes. Seize ans d’études, de revirements – le premier projet proposé par Nouvel ayant été jugé insuffisamment « démonstratif » – et de travaux pharaoniques. Seize ans durant lesquels le pouvoir qatari changea de mains, et l’équilibre régional, surtout, fut entièrement bouleversé.

Aujourd’hui, près de deux ans après le début de blocus, l’inauguration du bâtiment sous les projecteurs de la plupart des médias occidentaux est évidemment un pied de nez aux puissances voisines qui voulaient mettre le Qatar à genou. D’autant que le bâtiment conçu par Jean Nouvel, une iconique rose des sables s’étendant sur 52 000 mètres carrés sur la corniche de Doha, est réellement spectaculaire. Comme si le vent du désert les avait aléatoirement sculptés, 539 disques de béton de diamètres variés agencés les uns aux autres opposent leurs formes douces, incurvées et poétiques aux tours érectiles et brutales de la capitale Qatari. Et le plus saisissant, peut-être, se passe à l’intérieur. Planchers obliques, murs inclinés sur lesquels sont projetés les films de réalisateurs et de vidéastes contemporains mettant en scène les paysages et l’histoire qatarie, le visiteur est comme immergé, sur près de deux kilomètres de galeries, dans un espace dont il ne peut jamais à l’avance prévoir le volume.

Jean Nouvel y promène aujourd’hui sa haute silhouette si reconnaissable accompagnée en permanence de la sheikha al Mayassa bint Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, sœur de l’émir, collectionneuse d’art contemporain et présidente du Qatar Museum, et de la sheikha Amna bint Abdulaziz bin Jassim Al Thani, présidente du musée et membre, elle aussi, de la famille régnante. Tous trois de noir vêtus glissent dans les galeries couleur sable entourés en permanence d’un aréopage de médias occidentaux déroutés, pour certains, par ce qu’ils découvrent.

Ersatz
Le bâtiment et la muséographie sont, sans conteste, très réussis. Mais la beauté et la prouesse technique du contenant soulignent plus encore la pauvreté du contenu. Animaux empaillés, flore, fossiles, objets, bijoux, vêtements du peuple du désert et ustensiles de pêcheurs de perles, en somme, on est ici dans un ersatz, certes somptueux, d’un musée d’art et tradition populaires. Tout ça pour ça ? La vérité est que, dans cette région du monde où l’identité est éminemment complexe, où les tribus dont sont issues les familles au pouvoir ont des origines géographiques qui dépassent largement les frontières issues des indépendances, et où la proportion de non-nationaux résidant sur le territoire est considérable, l’enjeu des « racines » communes, fussent-elles mystifiées, est majeur.

Un précédent musée national inauguré juste après l’indépendance, en 1975, et signé de l’architecte Michael Rice avait reçu le prix Aga Khan de l’architecture en 1980. Quarante ans plus tard, la rose des sables de Jean Nouvel raconte de façon plus spectaculaire encore la vie dans le désert tout proche, l’épopée de la perle, l’arrivée du pétrole, puis du gaz, expose à travers quelques cartes l’histoire de la péninsule arabique et relate surtout la manière dont la famille Al Thani règne depuis cent cinquante ans sur ce bout de terre coincé entre le désert et la mer. Le musée, ce « nos ancêtres les bédouins » mis en scène par l’un des plus talentueux et médiatiques architectes contemporains, est d’ailleurs édifié, le geste est significatif, autour de l’ancien palais restauré du cheik Abdullah bin Jassim al Thani. Le coût total des travaux – Le Journal du dimanche a évoqué un montant de 434 millions de dollars – n’a été confirmé ni par Jean Nouvel ni par la famille régnante.