Doha Institute for Graduate Studies, in collaboration with Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art, hosted on Sunday, 25 April 2021, the Visual Arts Studies Third Annual Conference 2020-2021 under the theme “The Future Museum in the Future City,” with the participation of artists, researchers, museum practitioners, and curators from around the world, to discuss -over three days- the future scenarios open to multiple possibilities, by stimulating critical thinking about what may arise in the aftermath of the pandemic.
On the first day, participants had two sessions, “Critical reading of the urban formative forces of the plagued city” and “Revising the history of the modern museum in light of the current pandemic.” In the first session, Adham Selim, Independent Researcher, presented a paper titled: Speculative and excessive: Of finance, architecture and contemporary museum in the Arab world.”
Followed by Mohammmed Ouassit, Lawyer and lecturer, Al Hassan 2 University, Morocco, where he discussed the Legal protection of mobile traditional artefacts in the Arab world in times of armed conflicts and pandemics. At the end of the first session, Professor of Architecture and Urbanism, Dr. Ali A. Alraouf discussed a topic titled: “A tale of two cities, two museums and one starchitect.”
In the second session, Dr. Sarah Babiker, Sudanese Archeology Society, explained the role of the museum spaces in fostering the solidarity and steadfastness of the local communities during COVID-19 and after it. While Fatma Fangach, Ibn Zohr University, Morocco, spoke about the knowledge museum and the post COVID-19 challenges.
Concluding the first day, Abdellatif Khalqi, Student at DI, highlighted the role of the museum in coping with pandemics.
The sessions of the second day will resume with different topics presented by researchers and artists from various educational and artistic institutions.
