Pipilotti Rist to Exhibit Major Survey at Qatari Fire Station

Pipilotti Rist b. 1962, Switzerland Follow +

Works by Swiss video art maestra Pipilotti Rist will show at Doha contemporary art space Fire Station—formerly Qatar’s civil defence authority and a working fire station—from 23 February to 1 June.

The exhibition, titled Electric Idyll, is Rist’s first major survey in the Middle East.

‘Pipilotti Rist’s work is a favourite among the many people who have enjoyed her lively and immersive installation at the National Museum of Qatar,’ said Al Mayassa bint Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, Chairperson of Qatar Museums.

‘We are proud and excited to deepen our ties with her by presenting this endlessly fascinating new interactive exhibition, the first of its kind in our region, which she has designed especially for our audiences,’ she said.

The exhibition will include 14 works in a ‘hypnotic diorama’ that spans over 650-square-metres of exhibition space in the Fire Station’s Garage Gallery. It will be connected by a series of what Rist calls ‘electric islands’—video installations complemented by furniture, carpets, and domestic objects.

‘To pay tribute to all our senses and the brain, nature gave me my hands: now I give them back to her,’ Rist said in a statement. ‘I consider all artistic products—from ceramics and paintings to embroidery, films, and music—as offerings.’

‘Art that really reaches you and me floods us with wisdom: it trains us to accept different opinions; it instils serenity and reconciles reason and instinct; it helps us admit our biases and establish mental synchrony; it can raise utopias and help us be in awe and thankful,’ she added.

‘I cry for all the people who cannot—less for the ones that do not want to—enjoy art.‘Rist’s installation Your Brain to Me, My Brain to You (2022) remains on view at the National Museum of Qatar until 30 April. —[O]

Main image: Pipilotti Rist, Welling Color Island, 2023. Video still. © ProLitteris. Courtesy of the artist, Hauser & Wirth and Luhring Augustine.