A brand new exhibition on the Museum of Islamic Artwork (MIA) in Doha shines a light-weight on Afghanistan’s historical past and artwork from pre-Islamic occasions to the current day.
Empire of Gentle: Visions and Voices from Afghanistan (till 30 Might), a spotlight of Artwork Basel Qatar week, attracts primarily on the MIA assortment, presenting key works reminiscent of an early Thirteenth-century ewer (Ghurid or Ilkhanid interval) with silver and copper inlaid ornament and a folio from a Qur’an manuscript in kufic script in ink, gold and watercolour (ninth century).
Nicoletta Fazio, the exhibition’s co-curator, tells The Artwork Newspaper that “MIA and Qatar Museums have wealthy and really various collections tackling completely different areas of the historic Islamic world together with Afghanistan. We had been fortunate to have the ability to take out of storage a few of our hidden treasures and to borrow from our sister establishments: The Nationwide Assortment of Qatar and Lusail Museum, plus the Qatar Nationwide Library-Qatar Basis.”
Each curators—Fazio and Thomas Lentz—additionally seemed to worldwide lenders, museums and libraries from the European Union and the USA, such because the Nationwide Museum of Asian Artwork on the Smithsonian Establishment in Washington DC. Fazio provides. “For these we adopted normal worldwide procedures for worldwide mortgage requests.”
There are not any objects from Afghan museums nevertheless however different objects have come from Afghanistan together with a collection of large-scale picket items depicting key monuments; these had been created in Kabul within the Jangalak Vocational Coaching Centre based by the Aga Khan Belief for Tradition (AKTC). Considered one of these fashions reveals what’s left of the Noh Gunbad (9 domes) mosque which is taken into account the oldest Islamic constructing within the historic Japanese Islamic Lands.
“Noh Gunbad dates to newest the early ninth century and is constructed on a earlier sacred website associated to Buddhism. This reveals continuity in non secular practices and the reminiscence of sacred panorama, which is particular of Afghanistan,” says Fazio. A wall of conventional glass vessels on show had been produced in Herat in west Afghanistan by the craftsmen working with AKTC.
“As our accomplice for this undertaking, AKTC handled nearly all of the executive duties in Afghanistan to switch the fashions and objects to Doha. They had been of invaluable assist being current on the bottom in Kabul, caring for the logistics from their aspect,” she provides.
Sections reminiscent of The Japanese Frontier discover the rise of Islam in Afghanistan from the mid-Seventh century to the Mongol invasions whereas one other half focuses on artwork, structure, and the event of mental life below Timurid rule in Herat in the course of the fifteenth century. The ultimate part, The Storms of Historical past: Afghanistan within the Fashionable World, examines “historic burdens and current challenges”.
In 2021 the Taliban marched into Kabul and inaugurated the nation’s second “Islamic Emirate”, imposing an excessive interpretation of Islamic legislation on 40 million Afghans. A report printed in 2023 by the New York-based human rights organisation Creative Freedom Initiative (AFI) says that the hardline militant group has criminalised inventive expression within the nation.
The present additionally contains various up to date works together with Un-Secure Heaven (2025) by the Sydney-based artist Khadim Ali, who comes from Afghanistan’s traditionally marginalised Hazara group. This vivid material piece is “a deeply private interpretation of Afghanistan’s turbulent current previous”, says an accompanying caption.
Khadim Ali, Un-Secure Heaven (2025)
Courtesy of Qatar Museums
“[The work] is a textile response to evacuation as a historic and religious situation. Embroidered by Afghan women and men, the work speaks via collective labour reworking a home craft right into a language of witness. The embroidery turns into a flag not of nationhood or victory however of departure loss and survival,” Ali tells The Artwork Newspaper.
