Qatar s culture queen

　　卡塔爾的藝術女王

　　At 29, Sheikha Mayassa Al Thani is the art world smost powerful woman. Is she using her moneywell?

　　年僅29歲，Sheikha Mayassa Al Thani已經成為了藝術界中最有權的女人。她能支配好手中的錢嗎?

　　The starkly beautiful Museum of Islamic Art in Doha, Qatar, is a fine setting for adinner. Last month 200 dealers, collectors and curators gathered there for the opening of thefirst showing in the Middle East of work by Takashi Murakami. The hostess of the evening satlaughing with the pony-tailed Japanese artist on her right. On her left was Dakis Joannou, aGreek-Cypriot industrialist and avid collector of the work of Jeff Koons, an Americansculptor. Larry Gagosian, whom many regard as the most powerful art dealer in the world,was placed at a table nearby, with the other art dealers.

　　位于卡塔爾多哈的伊斯蘭藝術博物館美麗絕倫，是個很適宜舉辦晚宴的地方。上個月200名交易商，收藏家和館長曾于Takashi Murakami作品在中東首次展出的開幕式中云集于此。晚會的女主人正同坐在她右側的那位扎著馬尾辮的日本藝術家談笑著，她的右邊則坐著一位 Greek-Cypriot實業家DakisJoannou，他同時也是一位對美國雕塑家Jeff Koons的作品情有獨鐘的狂熱收藏家。而被認為是當今世界上最具權利的藝術品交易商Larry Gagosian,則被與他的一些同行們一塊安置在附近的桌上。

　　Few people could get away with asking Mr Gagosian to dinner halfway around the globe, onlyto sit him with the rest of the class. Sheikha Mayassa Al Thani is one. The emir of Qatar sdaughter has become one of the most talked-about figures of the international art world:collector, patron, cultural advocate. Mr Gagosian is not the only one who would like tocatch her eye.

　　繞了半個地球把Mr Gagosian請來參加晚宴，卻將其與其他交易商晾在一塊，很少人有資格這么做，但Sheikha Mayassa就是其中的一個。這位卡塔爾酋長的女兒作為收藏家，資助人和文化倡議者，已經成為了國際藝術界中被談論得最多的角色之一。希望引起她注意的人絕對不止Mr Gagosian一個。

　　Until the 1980s Qatar was little more than a sandy backwater. Even its native pearl industrywas on its last legs. The discovery of oil and, later, of the third-largest gas reserves in theworld have made the pear-shaped peninsula unusually rich. In 2010 its tiny population hadthe third highest per capita GDP in the world and its economy grew by 16.6%, faster than anyother. But even Qatar s oil and gas will one day run out. Transforming the country from ahydrocarbon economy to a knowledge economy in time for the post-oil afterlife is the localmantra.

　　在九十年代之前，卡塔爾基本上只能說是一片落后的多沙地帶。即使是土生土長的民族珍珠工業也到了瀕危狀態。但隨著石油，以及后來的一塊世界第三大天然氣田的發現，這個呈梨形半島狀的地方變得非一般富裕起來。在2010年，他們那一丁點兒人口的人均 GDP達到了世界第三，并且經濟總量增長率高達16.6%，比世界上任何一個國家都要快。不過，即使卡塔爾擁有的石油和天然氣資源再多，也終有用盡的一天。如何為將來的后石油時期做準備，及時將卡塔爾由一個碳氫經濟國家轉變為一個知識經濟國家，是當地時刻都在念叨的一個問題。

　　The emir s blueprint, Qatar National Vision 2030, is leading to new schools and universities, as well as a post-production centre toservice the international film industry, and even a paperless hospital. New museums toshowcase Qatar s collections of Islamic art, modernist Arab painting, photography, armourand natural history are all part of the plan.

　　而在他們酋長的藍圖卡塔爾展望2030里，包括建設新的中小學及高校，還有服務于國際電影工業的后期制作中心，甚至是無紙辦公醫院。建造新的博物館去展示卡塔爾在伊斯蘭藝術，現代阿拉伯繪畫，攝影，古代盔甲以及博物學方面的收藏，也同樣是這個計劃的一部分。

　　At the same time Sheikh Saud s older brother, Sheikh Hassan, was buying 20th-centuryArabic painting. Many of the artists were trained in Europe and the 6,000-piece collection atMathaf, a modern-art museum in Education City, has a derivative feel. For a fledglingnation the paintings are important as an historical record.

　　與此同時，Sheikh Saud的大哥Sheikh Hassan，正在收購20世紀的阿拉伯繪畫作品。由于它們的作者都是在歐洲訓練出身，所以在Mathaf。對于一個新興國家來說這些繪畫作品就同歷史記載一般重要。

　　Now the call to culture has fallen to a new generation. Sheikha Mayassa was a tomboyish,competitive child, the result, she says, of having two older brothers. Encouraged by hermother, a middle-class Qatari educated in a mixed school in Cairo , she learned French, English and her native Arabic, and went on to studypolitical science and literature at Duke University in North Carolina.

　　如今呼喚文化的重任已經降臨到他們下一代的身上。Sheikha Mayassa從小就有著如男孩般好強的個性，她說這是由于她有兩個大哥的緣故。受其母親一位曾于開羅的混合制學校接受教育的卡塔爾中產階級鼓勵，Sheikha Mayassa學習了法語，英語和本國的阿拉伯語。并且之后于美國北卡羅來納州的杜克大學在政治科學及文學方面進行了繼續深造。

　　Two years ago she and her husband, who had both been doing postgraduate work atColumbia University, returned home. Sheikha Mayassa s job, as the head of the QatarMuseums Authority , was to turn Qatar into a cultural powerhousea wellspring forexploring what art is and what it means for human beings to create it. Above all, we wantthe QMA to be a cultural instigator , a catalyst of arts projects worldwide, a trustee says.

　　兩年前Sheikha Mayassa同她的丈夫一塊兒回到了祖國。現在作為卡塔爾博物館管理局的負責人，她的工作就是努力成為一個文化發電廠，成為人類探索藝術真諦的源泉。首先，我們希望QMA能夠成為一個文化煽動者 ，進而推動世界范圍內的藝術項目的進行，QMA的一位成員這樣說道。

　　Sheikha Mayassa works in a spacious office on the top floor of the MIA. Its walls are lined inpale beech wood, and behind her long desk stretches an array of framed family photographs.Dressed in a black abaya, her hair covered, she wears hardly any jewellery other than achildlike bracelet made of coloured thread with a single gold charm, a tiny Arabic coffeepotor dallah. It retails for $82 in the museum shop.

　　Sheikha Mayassa的日常工作在MIA頂層的一個寬敞的辦公室中進行。墻的表面是灰白色的山毛櫸木，在她的長桌后是一排經過裝裱的其家人的相片。 Sheikha Mayassa身著黑色長袍，頭發都被遮住了，全身上下看不到一絲珠寶的影子，除了一個孩子氣十足的手鐲，那是由一根彩線及一個金色小飾物一個小巧的阿拉伯式咖啡壺構成，在博物館商店里的零售價是$82。

　　The QMA is a government body, but it remains wholly a family affair. In her first majorinterview, Sheikha Mayassa explains: The QMA is very much my father s baby. He wantedto create somethingto connect with the community, to create a culture dialogue withinsociety. We report directly to him. The nice thing about my father is that he doesn t interferein the day-to-day business. We present the strategy, and once he agrees with the strategyand the vision we are given the authority and freedom to go ahead and execute them inthe way we think fit.

　　QMA雖是一個政府部門，實則完全按照處理家族內部事務的模式來運行。在接受的第一次采訪中，SheikhaMayassa這樣解釋道：QMA就是我父親的一個孩子，他想創造一些東西...與各種團體進行溝通交流，也希望社會中能出現更多對文化的探討。我們的工作情況直接向他匯報。他的一個優點就是不會去干預我們部門的日常工作。我們先制定出工作策略讓他過目，一旦我們的看法獲得他的認可，我們就能放開手腳將其以我們認為合適的方式予以執行。

　　The QMA is not part of the Culture Ministry, though they do co-operate. The museum agencyworks with local franchises of foreign universities, such as University College London, on artsadministration and museum management. It recruits heavily from abroad, especially at asenior level. The director of the public-arts programme is a Dutchman, Jean-Paul Engelen,who came from Christie s. Edward Dolman, Christie s one-time British chief executive, runsSheikha Mayassa s office. The director of the MIA is 32-year-old Aisha Al Khater, the firstQatari woman to gain a degree in music. But the four specialist curators below her are allforeign. Two more are about to join them, an expert on manuscripts and another on coins.

　　QMA其實并非文化部的一部分，雖然他們會經常進行合作。在藝術品及博物館管理問題上，博物館辦事處經常同外國高校在當地的分支機構合作。目前它正大量招募海外人才，尤其是那些資深級別的。公眾藝術節目的導演Jean-Paul Engelen就是一個荷蘭人，他對Christie的小說并不感冒。而SheikhaMayassa的部門中的日常事務，則由Christie曾經聘用過的總經理英國人Edward Dolman來管理。MIA的主管是32歲的Aisha Al Khater，她是第一位取得音樂學位的卡塔爾女性。不過她手下的4位專家主任都是外國人，還有兩個也即將加入，他們分別是研究手稿及硬幣方面的專家。

　　The QMA budget is not made public. Decisions on funding and acquisitions are taken by asmall group at the top of the organisation. Although she did not say so in her interview,Sheikha Mayassa insists these remain secret for fear their ideas might be stolen by suchstates as Sharjah or Saudi Arabia. For those outside this inner circle decisions can seemarbitrary and confusing. Two MIA directors left after a relatively short time and earlier thismonth Wassan al-Khudairi announced that, after just a year as the head of Mathaf, she toowas returning to academic life.

　　QMA的預算并沒有對外部公開。在對項目撥款及物品采購問題上有資格做決定的，只有該組織結構頂層的一個小團體。盡管在接受采訪時并沒有明說，但Sheikha Mayassa一直堅稱之所以采取這些保密措施，是為了防止他們的構思被沙迦及沙特阿拉伯等國家所竊取。話雖如此，不過在那個小團體之外的人看來，這些決定可能是武斷的，而且讓人摸不著頭腦。之前兩位MIA主管在加入不久就離開了，并且這個月早前Wassanal-Khudairi也宣布，在擔任了 Mathaf的館長一年以后，她也將回歸自己專心于學術研究的生活。

　　Art mart

　　藝術交易

　　Attracting local audiences is a priority, the Sheikha says. The MIA, with its grand,forbidding approach , is not welcoming to the tens of thousands of migrantworkers who flock to Qatar from Pakistan and other parts of South Asia. To help counterthat, the QMA aims to open up its museums more to schoolchildren. It also wants toencourage local artists and to commission sculpture and photography by both Qatari andinternational artists for the new airport that opens in December and the vast new Sidramedical centre that will be finished probably next year.

　　Sheikhas說，吸引當地觀眾進入參觀是目前的首要任務。不過MIA那個宏偉而又令人生畏的入口并不歡迎從巴基斯坦或南亞的其他國家遷居至卡塔爾的工人。為了幫助抵制工人們的進入，QMA計劃將博物館更多地面向小學生開放。他們還想鼓勵當地的藝術家進行藝術創作，并且為將于今年12月開放的新機場和可能于明年完工的廣闊的新錫德拉療養中心向卡塔爾及國際范圍內的藝術家們委托以雕塑作品的制作并進行攝影作品的征集。

　　In addition to the Islamic and modern Arabic art museums, which now fall under the QMA, anew interactive museum of sport and the Olympics is slowly taking shape to coincide withQatar s hosting of the FIFA World Cup in 2023. The biggest project, though, is theconstruction of a national museum for Qatar, which will open in 2023. Its French architect,Jean Nouvel, has used the local desert rose as a motif for the exterior walls. Twelve interiorgalleries will tell the 300,000 Qataris their national story, from prehistoric times through tothe development of their pearl industry and the discovery of oil and gas, exploring localtraditions about the desert, food, fishing, falconry and folklore.

　　除了伊斯蘭藝術和現代阿拉伯藝術博物館，一座新的關于體育和奧林匹克的互動型博物館正在緩慢成型，這是為了2023年將在卡塔爾舉辦的世界杯而修建。但最龐大的項目是將于2023年對外開放的一個卡塔爾國家博物館的建造。它的建筑師來自法國的Jean Nouvel,使用了當地的沙漠玫瑰作為其外墻的主題，其內部的12條展廊將會向卡塔爾的國民訴說關于他們這個民族的故事，從史前時代到珍珠工業的發展，直至石油和天然氣的發現，并對與沙漠，飲食，釣魚，獵鷹訓練和民間傳說的當地傳統進行了一番探索。

　　The QMA is very good at borrowing from other museums. The MIA version of the Gifts of theSultan show that started last year in Los Angeles includes objects from Russia s Hermitagemuseum that the American exhibition did not have. A Qatari version of the British Museum snew Haj show will very likely have objects from the Topkapi Palace museum that wereblocked by the Turkish authorities. In response to a British block on taking home two majorart works that the QMA bought at auction in London, the Qataris have skilfully negotiatedlong-term loan agreements with two British museums that will also provide help in trainingQatari staff.

　　QMA十分善于向其他博物館進行借鑒學習。有個叫蘇丹王的禮物的展覽會去年在洛杉磯開展，而該版本的MIA版本則青出于藍勝于藍-還收錄了從俄羅斯的Hermitage博物館中借來的珍品。而學習于英國新朝圣展覽會的一次展出中，也很可能會出現從Topkapi Palace museum中借來的一些珍藏，之前這一直是遭到土耳其當局封鎖的。QMA曾在倫敦的一個拍賣會上購得兩件主要藝術品，但由于英國政府的阻止而無法運送回國，最終他們通過嫻熟的談判技巧同兩家英國博物館達成了長期租借協議，并且英國方面將會為訓練卡塔爾方面的工作人員提供幫助。

　　Whereas nearby Abu Dhabi is franchising outlets of the Louvre and the Guggenheim, Qatar isgrowing its own museums. Sheikha Mayassa s use of its Islamic and Orientalist collections toexplain the region s history makes sense. Less clear is why she has been buying Western art.Over the past seven years the Al Thani family is estimated to have spent at least $1 billion onWestern painting, sculpture and installations, including the last privately held version of PaulCezanne s The Card Players for over $250ma record price for a work of art. Thatacquisition, which took place in early 2011 but was reported only last month, is just thelatest in a series of purchases that includes some of the very best works made by FrancisBacon, Mark Rothko, Andy Warhol and Damien Hirst, a number of them bought for recordprices. Speculation about the Al Thanis art buying has been fuelled by the family s blankrefusal to confirm or deny any of the rumours and its reluctance to clarify whether itsacquisitions are private or on behalf of the stateor even to explain how they might benefitQatar s citizens.

　　當旁邊的阿布扎比正為盧浮宮和Guggenheim在當地建立分支時，卡塔爾開始發展起自己的博物館了。Sheikha Mayassa通過利用博物館的伊斯蘭和東方的收藏品去闡釋這個國家的歷史是有意義的。讓人不解的是她對西方藝術作品的購入。經估計，Al Thani家族于過去7年中已在對西方的繪畫作品，雕塑作品及各種設施的購買上花費了至少10億美元，其中包括用2億5000萬購買保羅塞尚的作品 《玩牌的人》的最后一件私人持有版，這對任何藝術品來說都是創紀錄的價格。他們的這次大手筆雖然在2011年年初便已敲定，但直到上個月才被報道出來。在最近的這一次出手之前，他們已經完成了一系列的收購，其中不乏出自弗蘭西斯培根, 馬克羅斯科, 安迪沃霍爾，和達米恩赫斯特等名家之手的傳世精品，其中相當一部分均已創紀錄的價格購入。關于Al Thani家族大量購買藝術品的行為有許多謠言，由于他們既拒絕對其予以確認或否認，又不愿澄清他們的行為是屬于私人性質抑還是代表國家或者解釋下這些東西將會如何造福卡塔爾人民，各種與之相關的猜測便如火上添油般愈演愈烈了。

　　Sheikha Mayassa is keen to bring some big names to Doha. A Murakami show at the Palaceof Versailles in 2010 led to the Japanese artist s Doha retrospective. Mr Hirst s show at TateModern in London, which opens on April 4th and which is costing the QMA more than ￡2m tosponsor, will give rise next year to a Hirst show in Qatar, another first for the region.

　　Sheikha Mayassa十分熱衷于將那些一個個響當當的名字引入多哈。Murakami作品展于2010年在凡爾賽宮舉辦過后，多哈也為這位日本藝術家的作品舉辦了一場回顧展出。Hirst作品展今年四月在倫敦泰特陳列館舉辦過后，也將于明年第一次登陸卡塔爾這個國度。

　　In order for the QMA to be more than a rich girl s plaything, Sheikha Mayassa will have to dobetter than put expensive foreign baubles on display in her homeland. She needs to be farmore innovative and focused in choosing between the hundreds of exhibitions the QMA getsoffered. Last year s showing at the MIA of German Baroque from Dresden made no sense. CaiGuo-Qiang s evocative exploration, now at Mathaf, of the ancient links between China andthe Gulf is new and original.

　　要想使QMA不僅僅是一個富家女的玩物，Sheikha Mayassa若只是將國外的一些花哨玩意兒搬進卡塔爾是遠遠不夠的。她必須更具創造性，并在對被提供至眼前的成百上千展會舉辦計劃進行挑選時更加注意。像去年MIA舉辦的德國巴洛克作品展就是沒有任何意義的。而現在Mathaf所舉辦的蔡國強作品展則是別出心裁的，它對中國和波斯灣各國之間的古代淵源進行了探索。

　　An absolute monarchy like Qatar is a hard place in which to encourage the daring,irreverence and subversiveness that is the hallmark of a truly artistic nature. Noteveryone in Qatar is persuaded of art s importance. The local blogosphere is full ofsuggestions that the country would do better with a Formula One racetrack or anotherfootball stadium. And the recent sudden announcement that Qatar University would switchto teaching in Arabic instead of English is a sign that conservative nationalists have realpower here. In her introduction to the Tate s Hirst catalogue, Sheikha Mayassa writes thatArteven controversial artcan unlock communication between diverse nations,peoples and histories. The years ahead will test her resolveQatar s too.