From 24 October 2023 to 25 January 2024, the National Museum of Qatar hosted nearly 130 works from the large collection of visual arts from Oceania owned by the Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York. This was the first time in nearly a century that the exhibits had left the United States. They are usually on display in the MET’s Michael C. Rockefeller wing, which is currently undergoing renovation.
The exhibition was organised around the themes of “Voyaging”, “Ancestors” and “Time” with the aim of highlighting the interconnectedness of Pacific islanders and their rich cultural heritage, and the dynamic artistic expressions of these islands. Some of the pieces were four hundred years old and included door panels, intricately carved ancestral figures, ceremonial ornaments, musical instruments, turtle shell masks and whale ivory pectorals. The display was presented from indigenous perspectives and based on cross-disciplinary research involving art history, ethnography and archaeology.
Carried out by Museea, the studio founded by Sofia Hedman and Serge Martynov that has designed installations for some of the world’s most prestigious museums, the exhibition project was defined by its simplicity and monochromatic emphasis on white to cede all protagonism to a series of artistic manifestations connected conceptually and materially to the natural world. Thanks to this approach, viewers were immediately able to perceive that certain art forms emerged in different periods and in different insular contexts, revealing the enduring cultural ties that the Pacific islanders have maintained for generations.
Empty made the shop drawings for the production of walls, plinths and display cases with large-format panes of glass, and implemented all the MET’s specifications for installing the exhibits in the new cases. It also collaborated in the assembly of the exhibits and installed the necessary infrastructure for the audiovisual productions. The adaptation of the space to receive the collection had to be completed within just two weeks, and it took nearly three weeks to install the works.
