Fourteen giant bronze sculptures have been installed outside the Sidra Medical and Research Center in Doha. The sculptures are the works of British artist Damien Hirst and depict the journey of a foetus from conception to birth. (SHAIVAL DALAL)
DOHA: Fourteen monumental sculptures depicting the gestation of a foetus from conception to birth were unveiled outside Sidra Medical and Research Center here on Monday.
The bronze sculptures are the work of British artist Damien Hirst.
It took three years for the installation — “The Miraculous Journey” — to complete. The sculptures vary from five to 11 metres in height and altogether weigh 216 tonnes.
The giant bronze figures were individually cast in over 500 panels at Pangolin Foundry in the UK. The scale of the sculptures required the foundry to make a staggering 19 kilometre-long weld line of bronze. Pangolin described it as the largest project they have undertaken to date.
The Miraculous Journey begins with the fertilisation of an egg and ends with a fully-formed baby. The biological variations that can occur during pregnancy — twins, and transverse and breech birth — are shown alongside the typical development of a foetus.
The unveiling coincides with the opening of Hirst’s first solo show in the Middle East: Relics at Al Riwaq exhibition space.
Hirst is among the world’s most influential artists. The work addresses some of the artist’s most enduring concerns and explores the difficulties inherent in trying to express the profundities of our existence.
“Ultimately, the journey a baby goes through before birth is bigger than anything it will experience in its human life. I hope The Miraculous Journey will instill in the viewer a sense of awe and wonder at this extraordinary human process, which will soon be occurring at Sidra, as well as every second all across the globe,” said Hirst.
The introduction of Hirst’s bold work signals an important step in the growth of a cross-cultural dialogue between the UK and Qatar.
Relics and The Miraculous Journey contribute to five significant cultural projects that will launch in different spaces across Doha in the first week of October, including Adel Abdessemed’s L’âge d’or at Mathaf; Museum of Crying Woman, a project by Francesco Vezzoli, in dialogue with Rem Koolhaas and Hans Ulrich Obrist at QMA Gallery at Katara; and Haj – The Journey Through Art at the Museum of Islamic Art.
The Peninsula
