‘What’s between, between?’ will run through May 14, 2026. Pictures by Mohamed Attar / The Peninsula
Doha, Qatar: The future is not one shared or fixed idea, but something experienced differently by each person, shaped by their own life and circumstances.
The Media Majlis Museum at Northwestern University in Qatar’s latest exhibition ‘What’s between, between?’ reflects this “in-between” reality through a deliberately simple yet chaotic visual style. It also centers Arabic and presents artists through their lived experiences of in-betweenness, rather than by nationality or social labels alone.
Curated by Jack Thomas Taylor, curator of art, media and technology, and Amal Zeyad Ali, assistant curator, the exhibition opens to the public today(January 26) and will run through May 14, 2026.
Gulf futurism and anxiety of unknown
Speaking during a press preview, NU-Q Dean and CEO Marwan M. Kraidy said the exhibition draws on the idea of Gulf Futurism, placing it within a broader historical and technological context. “Futurism is a movement that began a long time ago, originally in Italy, and it is closely associated with media and technology,” he said. “Humans often imagine the future as the control of space and time through technology. The future can make us anxious because it is unknown and uncontrollable, so we project technologically as a way to understand it, imagine it, and shape it.”
Kraidy invited visitors to see the exhibition as an open-ended space for reflection rather than a fixed narrative. “Think of the exhibition as a space where you can imagine what the future might look like, partly by looking at the past, but not only the past,” he said. “While it is true that understanding the past matters, we live in a present that is suspended between past and future. I invite you to ask questions, and we have our experts here to respond.”
Director of The Media Majlis Museum Alfredo Cramerotti; NU-Q Dean and CEO Marwan M. Kraidy; Curator Jack Thomas Taylor; and Assistant Curator Amal Zeyad Ali are addressing the media at a press preview event.
Embracing complexity in curation
Director of The Media Majlis Museum Alfredo Cramerotti stressed that complexity is central to the museum’s curatorial approach. “One thing that is important for us as a university museum is not to oversimplify,” he said. “As you move through the exhibition, you will encounter multiple perspectives and interpretations of futures in the Gulf. Many of these ideas are complex and not easily explained, and that is intentional.”
Cramerotti highlighted the research-driven nature of the project, noting that each exhibition is accompanied by a bilingual Arabic-English publication. “Every exhibition involves extensive research, which is central to our mission,” he said. “This is why we also publish a bilingual book in Arabic and English for each exhibition, with contributions from scholars and writers who offer additional perspectives beyond what is displayed.”
The meaning - ‘What’s Between, Between?’
Curator Jack Thomas Taylor explained that the title ‘What’s Between, Between? reflects the language often used to describe the region. “The title comes from the way we often speak about being between East and West, past and future, now and then,” he said. “But what actually exists in that in-between space?”
Taylor noted that the exhibition challenges the idea of a single, dominant future. “When people talk about the future, it is often framed as a single destination,” he said. “What we found instead are many different degrees of in-betweenness, shaped by lived experience and personal reality. There is no single experience of the future.”
This concept is reflected in the exhibition’s visual language and curatorial structure. Arabic is positioned above other languages, and artists are introduced through the forms of in-betweenness they navigate in daily life. “Many artists straddle multiple identities or geographies—living between countries, cultures, or histories,” Taylor said, adding that the exhibition aims to move beyond reducing Gulf Futurism to a surface-level aesthetic.
Salt and the atmosphere as conceptual frameworks
The exhibition also uses salt as a guiding metaphor, linking histories of trade, labour, ecology, and extraction to contemporary transformation. Another conceptual framework draws on the layers of the atmosphere, which artists use creatively to explore power, acceleration, and aspiration rather than as a literal scientific model.
“One of the exhibition’s guiding metaphors is salt. Salt preserves and dissolves; it is found in the desert and the sea and is deeply connected to the region’s history. Artists were invited to explore this material metaphorically and physically in their work,” Taylor said.
Assistant curator Amal Zeyad Ali said the exhibition brings together more than 20 artists from across the Gulf, with strong representation from Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Qatar. “All Gulf regions are represented, because it was important to speak about the Gulf from within rather than through external stereotypes,” she said. “There is no singular future. Each person imagines it differently.”
Rather than offering definitive answers, Ali said the exhibition is designed to provoke dialogue. “Rather than answering the question of what exists ‘between,’ we pose it to the audience,” she said. “The exhibition is meant to start conversations, encourage debate, and invite people to rethink assumptions about the future.”
‘What’s between, between?’ is the eleventh exhibition of the Media Majlis Museum at NU-Q, during a very active time for Qatar. With upcoming events like the Web Summit Qatar and Art Basel Qatar and ongoing public engagement, the museum connects scholarship, teaching, and community dialogue.
