The National Pavilion of Qatar has unveiled details of its presentation for the 61st International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia, with Kuwaiti–Puerto Rican artist Alia Farid (SMVisS ’08) playing a central role in the ambitious multidisciplinary project untitled 2026 (a gathering of remarkable people).
Commissioned by Her Excellency Sheikha Al Mayassa bint Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani and produced by Qatar Museums, the exhibition brings together an international roster of artists under the direction of Thai Argentine artist Rirkrit Tiravanija. Installed in the Giardini della Biennale on the future site of Qatar’s permanent pavilion, the project transforms the space into a temporary gathering structure inspired by Qatari communal architecture.
Within this collaborative environment, Alia Farid’s contribution stands out as a powerful meditation on water, labor, and the material culture of the Gulf. Her work, Jerrican (2022–2026), is described as a “large-scale sculpture” drawn from her ongoing series of oversized vessels historically used for storing and transporting water across the region.
Farid’s sculptures reinterpret these everyday containers at monumental scale. Though enormous in appearance, the works remain “hollow and light,” fabricated in lacquered fiberglass using the same industrial techniques employed to manufacture the decorative shells surrounding public drinking fountains throughout Gulf cities. This process allows Farid to collapse distinctions between sculpture, architecture, and public infrastructure, while drawing attention to the histories embedded in ordinary urban objects.
The choice of the jerrican is especially resonant in the context of the Gulf, where access to water has long shaped migration, trade, and patterns of communal life. By enlarging these functional objects beyond human scale, Farid transforms them into symbols of survival and collective memory. Her work reflects broader themes that run through the Qatar Pavilion presentation: resilience, exchange, and the cultural networks that connect communities across the Arab world.
Farid joins a distinguished group of collaborators including Sophia Al-Maria, who presents an experimental narrative film; Lebanese sound artist Tarek Atoui, who organizes live musical performances; and Palestinian chef Fadi Kattan, who curates a culinary program centered on preservation and innovation in Middle Eastern cuisine. Together, the contributors activate Tiravanija’s architectural framework as a living social space rather than a static exhibition.
Speaking about the project, Tiravanija emphasized the collective nature of the undertaking, noting that Alia Farid and the other collaborators “represent different aspects of Arab culture” united within the Qatar Pavilion.
Curated by Tom Eccles and Ruba Katrib, a gathering of remarkable people continues the collaborative ethos that has defined Tiravanija’s practice for decades, foregrounding participation, hospitality, and shared cultural experience. Yet Farid’s Jerrican offers one of the exhibition’s most materially grounded interventions, connecting the pavilion’s themes of gathering and exchange to the elemental necessity of water itself.
As Qatar expands its cultural presence on the international stage, Farid’s work underscores how contemporary art from the Gulf can engage deeply with regional histories while speaking to global questions of resource, infrastructure, and collective life.
