Cai Guo-Qiang Gunpowder's Project impact On Qatar

From November 2011 through December 2011, I’ve been working with Chinese Contemporary Artist and Curator; Cai Guo-Qiang, hosted by Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art, Qatar. Cai initially began working with gunpowder to foster spontaneity and confront the suppressive, controlled artistic tradition and social climate in China.















While living in Japan from 1986 to 1995, Cai explored the properties of gunpowder in his drawings, an inquiry that eventually led to his experimentation with explosives on a massive scale and the development of his signature "explosion events". While I was participating in this project, I noticed that sociology has a very huge impact on the process was running on through the whole project. At the beginning, there was a huge discussion of hosting the Gunpowder Project here in Qatar by engaging the young generation with it, however, Mathaf has broke the norms by introducing the Gunpowder Project in Qatar. Everyone who heard about the huge explosion that is going to be held in Qatar got worried about it, however, the advertisement around Doha Town helped people to get engaged with the process of the project and actually people signed to participate in this new norm happening in Qatar.















From day one, I’ve been noticing many sociological aspects from culture, mcdonaldzation, to individuality vs. collectivism. Even though, it’s Cai’s individual artwork, he broke the norm by involving us the audience from China and Qatar, in his project by assigning us tasks to complete his work as a group instead. I found that he had assigned each participant with specific tasks and everyone would be working with efficiency, calculability, predictability under his control, which symbolize mcdonaldzation. On the other hand, the gender and ethnicity was not a problem with him at all. There were many people from this region and foreigners too collaborating in his project, which is a morality's gesture from him. By hosting here in Qatar I believe, he had a huge impact in spreading his culture through his Artworks by attracting the audience and engaging them to spread and share his values. I learned from this experience that, culture could be extent through many various ways rather than the old fashioned techniques; it needs only an influential vision and strength to accomplish the intention.





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The Project's Conclusion.

Progress In Souq Waqif

Two types of progress are seen in souq waqif and sociology allows us to track these diverging behaviors in cultural behavior. One is cultural progress. Specifically, I am talking about the art exhibitions that are held in the galleries and some of the restaurants found there. The second kind of progress is that of westernization and globalization.

I have been to souq waqif many times and each time I go there, I am amazed at both of these types of progresses.

I remember the first time I ever went to souq waqif was with my school, and I remember telling one of my friends “Why is there a Baskin Robbins in the middle of souq waqif? Isn’t this supposed to be a cultural place?” What I had failed to realize then was that even though Baskin Robbins was not part of my culture, it is still part of culture- just not mine. Baskin Robbins’ motto is “Your Neighborhood Ice Cream Store” which shows how dominant it is in American society, or how dominant it wants to be. I can’t be the judge of that because I’ve never actually been to California- which is where Baskin Robbins first started out. The same goes to the restaurants in souq waqif, for example the Iranian, the Indian and the Italian restaurants.

Also, another form of cultural progress is the art exhibitions that can be seen in the galleries of souq waqif. One of the exhibitions that I went to focused on Qatari artists and I could actually see the artist painting his work onto the canvas. Not only was it interesting to see an artist at work, creating a cultural object, but it was interesting to see a Qatari one because it was the first time that I’ve seen this type of thing. I’ve also seen an exhibition where more than one person has worked on a piece of art, so it was a collective activity and there was a division of labor amongst the people. I also heard many people talking about their thoughts of the many artworks and each person had a different opinion, which proves that cultural objects are multivocal.

The other kind of progress is the westernization and globalization. The Baskin Robbins example could be put in this category as well. As I previously mentioned, Baskin Robbins started out in the United States of America, specifically the state of California. So the fact that it is located in Qatar means that Qatar is becoming westernized, even if it is through a simple thing like ice cream. Another example of westernization in souq waqif is the fact that many of the cafés have multiple television screens in them that usually play some sort of western sport, usually football. Once when I was walking around the souq, I heard a loud cheering noise coming from the cafés, I assumed a team had won and the people were cheering because of that and that they were experiencing collective effervescence. Another example is the parking lot surrounding the souq. This is part of westernization because the need for parking lots came from the west, which is where cars were invented. Traditionally parking lots were not needed because all people needed were posts to tie their camels to.