The exhibition contextualises the Majlis, featuring the people and materials involved in its construction. Showcasing artworks and rare artefacts from the Sheikh Faisal Bin Qassim Al Thani Museum in Qatar, the Dutch National Museum of World Cultures in the Netherlands, the Scuola Grande di San Rocco of Venice, the monastery of San Lazzaro degli Armeni in the Venetian lagoon, and private collections, the project presents a platform for transnational, transcultural, and transhistorical exchange.
At the core of the Majlis exhibition is a film and a series of photos by Jörg Gruber that document the different forms of craftsmanship that were involved in realizing the project: the surviving practices of herding, shearing, dyeing with natural pigment, and weaving on traditional looms in Morocco, as well as the processes of selecting bamboo and putting together the resilient construction in Colombia. The artisans, their tools, and materials themselves narrate the story of the Majlis — a story that may offer a key to our main question: how will we live together?
The pieces of textile artwork that adorn the Majlis were designed by Nina