Venice (Italy), May 06 (QNA) - HE Chairperson of Qatar Museums, Sheikha Al Mayassa bint Hamad Al-Thani, today opened untitled 2026 (a gathering of remarkable people); Rirkrit Tiravanija, Sopha Al-Maria, Tarek Atoui, Alia Faris, Fadi Kattan, Qatar's official contribution to the 61st International Art Exhibition—La Biennale Di Venezia, presented on the site of the future permanent Qatar Pavilion in the Giardini della Biennale. 
The exhibition is organized by Qatar Museums and presented by Rubaiya Qatar, a nationwide multidisciplinary contemporary art quadrennial debuting this November. 
At the official ceremony, Her Excellency welcomed dignitaries including HE Ambassador of the State of Qatar to the Italian Republic Khalid bin Youssef Al Sada, and Mayor of the City of Venice Luigi Brugnaro.
"Our participation in La Biennale di Venezia started with the vision of our leadership to encourage dialogue and share the talent of Qatar and the region with the world," said HE Sheikha Al Mayassa bint Hamad Al-Thani. 
"We are meeting in a difficult hour, when displacement, destruction, and destabilisation are daily words across our region and beyond. Culture connects what conflict tries to break apart and honours the humanity in each of us. That is why, for this first contribution by Qatar to Venice's Art Biennale, we invited Rirkrit Tiravanija — a master of communal, interactive experiences — to imagine this exhibition. Under its tent, our community of artists will form, in the oldest and most generous meaning of the word, a tribe: a circle bound by hospitality, by craft, and by the simple conviction that to share a meal, a song, or a story is already to begin to understand one another." 
'a gathering of remarkable people' features an experimental narrative film by Qatari-American artist Sophia Al-Maria, entitled DAMAR TV (2026); Jerrican (2022–2026), a large-scale sculpture by Kuwaiti-Puerto Rican artist Alia Farid; as well as live musical performances organised by Lebanese artist Tarek Atoui and a culinary programme of Middle Eastern cuisine designed by Palestinian chef Fadi Kattan.
  The exhibition opened with live music arranged by Atoui inspired by the structures of the takht (classical Arabic orchestra) and the wasla (musical suite) and featuring more than a half dozen musicians and singers representing seven nations. 
The performances were accompanied by culinary offerings prepared by Kattan along with chefs and authors Noof Al Marri of the Desert Rose Café at the National Museum of Qatar (Qatar), Noor Murad (Bahrain), and Majed Ali Almatrooshi (United Arab Emirates), and mixologists Anna Patrowicz (Poland/UK) and Vesta Kontrimaviciene (Lithuania) of akub London. The exhibition is co-curated by Tom Eccles (Executive Director, Center for Curatorial Studies and the Hessel Museum of Art, Bard College) and Ruba Katrib (Chief Curator and Director of Curatorial Affairs, MoMA PS1). (QNA)