Qatar Museums has launched the 2025 edition of Tasweer Photo Festival Qatar, the country’s biennial photography event, to be part of the 2025 edition of Qatar Creates. The festival features eight exhibitions on view until 20 June 2025 across five venues, which were inaugurated by Her Excellency Sheikha Al Mayassa bint Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, Chairperson of Qatar Museums. Founded in 2021 by Khalifa Al Obaidly, Tasweer supports various regional photographic practices through exhibitions, commissions, awards, workshops, and collaborations. This year’s theme centres on belonging, with the lead exhibition, As I Lay Between Two Seas. Here’s everything you need to know about Tasweer’s exhibitions.
As I Lay Between Two Seas
Curated by Meriem Berrada, this exhibition explores the idea of belonging through works by 25 artists from the Arab world and its diasporas. Drawing on Stuart Hall’s concept of identity as a continuous process, the exhibition focuses on in-between spaces shaped by memory, rupture, and resistance. Literary voices such as Gibran Khalil Gibran and Mahmoud Darwish inform its curatorial rhythm.
On view at the Fire Station: Artist in Residence.
Daoud Aoulad Syad: Territories of the Instant
A retrospective of Moroccan photographer and filmmaker Daoud Aoulad-Syad, this exhibition cover over three decades of work. His images depict Moroccan landscapes and rural life, blending photography and cinematic storytelling. Curated by Meriem Berrada, it is hosted at Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art as part of the Qatar-Morocco 2024 Year of Culture legacy.
Obliteration – Surviving the Inferno: Gaza’s Battle for Existence
Curated by Dr. Bahaaeldin Abudaya, this outdoor exhibition at Katara Cultural Village documents the war in Gaza across five visual chapters. Combining photography with contextual texts, it chronicles the escalation of violence and its impact on everyday life.
Refractions: Tasweer Project Awards
This exhibition features work by 18 winners of the 2023 and 2024 Tasweer Project Awards at Katara Buildings 45 and 46. Curated by Sheikha Maryam Hassan Al-Thani, it is divided into two sections: “Scattered Reflections” – showcasing the effect of conflict, environmental crisis, and forced displacement – and “Enduring Horizons” – pondering on the idea of memory as a form of resistance against erasure. The images centre the everchanging concept of belonging in MENA.
Threads of Light: Stories from the Tasweer Single Image Awards
Showcasing thirty-two photographs by winners from twelve countries, this exhibition spans documentary, street, and artistic photography. Themes include daily life, tradition, and social change across the Arab world. Curated by Sheikha Maryam Hassan Al-Thani, it is on view at The Company House, Msheireb.
Al-Mihrab
Curated by Khalifa Al Obaidly, this exhibition presents photographs of mosques across Qatar in both black and white and colour of Artist Khalid Al-Musallamany. The exhibition reflects on architectural heritage and spiritual spaces. The exhibition is on view at the Fire Station: Gallery 3.
After the Game
This exhibition focuses on photographers’ and filmmakers’ responses to the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022, capturing fan culture and social life beyond the stadiums. It also features short films from the Doha Film Institute’s “Made in Qatar” program. Also curated by Khalifa Al Obaidly, it is on view at the Fire Station: Gallery 4.
Garangao 2025
Presented at the Fire Station (Barahat), this open-call exhibition features submitted photographs that embody the power of photography to capture memories, cultural continuity, and the sense of belonging.
Date: on view until 20 June 2025