Qatar picks Tiravanija
Rirkrit Tiravanija will represent Qatar at the 2026 Venice Biennale with an exhibition that brings together musicians, chefs and visual artists. (artforum.com). The project is explicitly cross‑disciplinary, signaling Qatar’s pavilion will mix live performance, food practices and collaborative installations. (artforum.com)
Qatar has picked Rirkrit Tiravanija to lead its national pavilion at the 2026 Venice Biennale, opening May 9 in Venice. (artforum.com) The project is titled *untitled 2026 (a gathering of remarkable people)* and will be presented by Qatar’s National Pavilion in the Giardini della Biennale. Qatar announced the details on April 13 and 14, 2026. (thepeninsulaqatar.com) Tiravanija’s exhibition is set to bring together musicians, poets, chefs and artists from the Arab world rather than a single-medium art display. The cocurators are Tom Eccles of Bard College’s Center for Curatorial Studies and Hessel Museum of Art and Ruba Katrib of MoMA PS1. (artforum.com) Qatar’s pavilion is part of the 61st International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia, which runs from May 9 to November 22, 2026, with preview days on May 6, 7 and 8. The main exhibition will proceed under the title *In Minor Keys*. (labiennale.org) The announcement lands as Qatar expands its cultural footprint in Venice. Qatar’s national pavilion is at the Giardini, the Biennale’s historic pavilion grounds, where permanent national sites are limited and closely watched. (thepeninsulaqatar.com) The artist choice also fits Tiravanija’s long-running practice, which often uses meals, gatherings and shared space as the work itself rather than treating art as an object on a wall. Qatar’s pavilion description says the 2026 project builds on that decades-long method of inviting collaborators to activate architectural and spatial settings. (qatar-tribune.com) The participant list released so far includes Sophia Al-Maria, Tarek Atoui, Alia Farid and chef Fadi Kattan alongside Tiravanija. That lineup points to a pavilion built around collaboration across visual art, sound and food. (qatar-tribune.com) By the time the Biennale opens next month, Qatar’s pavilion will be one of the first chances to see how that cross-disciplinary format works inside one of the art world’s biggest national stages. (labiennale.org)
