Qatar’s Venice plan

Qatar has picked Rirkrit Tiravanija to lead its national presentation at the 2026 Venice Biennale, with a pavilion built around gathering and shared performance. (artforum.com) The project is titled *untitled 2026 (a gathering of remarkable people)*, and Qatar said on April 13 that it will bring together artists, musicians, poets and chefs from across the Arab world. (nationaltoday.com) Qatar Museums commissioned the pavilion through Sheikha Al Mayassa bint Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, and the announced collaborators include Sophia Al Maria, Tarek Atoui, Alia Farid and the Palestinian chef Fadi Kattan. (thepeninsulaqatar.com) The exhibition will be staged in a tent-like structure in the Giardini, on the future site of Qatar’s permanent pavilion in Venice. Curators Tom Eccles and Ruba Katrib are overseeing the presentation. (nationaltoday.com) That location matters because the Giardini is the Biennale’s historic core, where only a limited number of countries have permanent national pavilions. Qatar’s pavilion is part of a broader push to secure a lasting place inside that structure of national representation. (labiennale.org) (myartguides.com) The 61st International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia runs from May 9 to November 22, 2026, with preview days on May 6, 7 and 8. The main exhibition will go ahead under the title *In Minor Keys*. (labiennale.org) Tiravanija is known for works that turn exhibitions into places for cooking, eating, talking and listening rather than just looking at objects on walls. Qatar Museums used the same language in a 2025 public-art project in Doha that invited visitors to eat, talk and reflect inside the work. (qm.org.qa) (stpi.com.sg) He was born in Buenos Aires in 1961, is Thai, and has lived and worked across New York, Berlin and Chiang Mai. His practice since the 1990s has been closely tied to social situations and collaborative formats. (stpi.com.sg) Qatar’s 2026 plan makes that approach national policy for one of the art world’s biggest stages: a pavilion that treats food, sound and conversation as part of the exhibition itself. The first public test comes when the Biennale opens in Venice on May 9. (thepeninsulaqatar.com) (labiennale.org)