Doha, Qatar: The Media Majlis Museum at Northwestern University in Qatar will present a critical and immersive exploration of the future of the Gulf region in its spring 2026 exhibition, “What’s between, between?” curated by Jack Thomas Taylor, curator of art, media and technology, and Amal Zeyad Ali, assistant curator, running from January 26 to May 14, 2026.
The exhibition will offer audiences the chance to examine the meanings and “Gulf Futurism,” a term coined by Qatari artist Sophia Al-Maria, looking at the histories, dreaming, futures, and the Gulf region as a contested field shaped by rapid transformation, speculative imagination, and lived experience across the region, moving beyond singular narratives towards complex, in-between realities.
Through loaned works, new commissions, and digital media, it examines the tensions between tradition and hyper-modernity, heritage and innovation, human and machine.
A key theme of the exhibition is the metaphor of salt, which is used as an analytical framework to reference histories of trade, labour, ecology, and extraction, while also pointing to contemporary conditions of rapid change.
Building on this conceptual lens, the exhibition is structured around the Earth’s atmospheric layers, moving from the troposphere, linked to global trade and consumption, to the thermosphere, associated with satellite infrastructure, communication systems, and space ambitions, and inviting visitors to consider how multiple temporal and spatial scales intersect in shaping the region today.
“With ‘What’s between, between?,’ the Media Majlis Museum further advances Northwestern Qatar’s academic mission by translating research, critical inquiry, and creative practice into a interative exhibition engaging the wider local community,” said dean and CEO of Northwestern Qatar, Marwan M Kraidy, “The exhibition reflects our commitment to evidence-based storytelling, offering audiences a means to engage thoughtfully with the region’s layered histories and its fast-changing present, and to think critically about how futures are imagined and shaped.
“This approach is a reflection of NU-Q’s values of excellence, collaboration, community, and sustainability.”
Director of Media Majlis Museum, Alfredo Cramerotti added, “As a next-generation university museum, Media Majlis Museum is interested in the spaces where meaning is unsettled.
This exhibition embraces the in-between, not as ambiguity to be resolved, but as a condition to be explored. It asks whose futures are being imagined, and who gets to participate in shaping them.”
More than 20 artists from across the Gulf region have contributed to the exhibition, offering peripheral, poetic, and critical perspectives on life in the Gulf today.
The exhibition will be accompanied by a special publication, What’s between, between?, which brings together a collection of original essays, dialogues, and critical reflections on Gulf futures through artistic, theoretical, and speculative perspectives.
“What’s between, between?” will be on view at Media Majlis Museum from January 26 to May 14, 2026. Admission is free and open to the public.
