AR-RAYYAN.- The Media Majlis Museum at Northwestern University in Qatar will present a critical and immersive exploration of the future of the Gulf region in its spring 2026 exhibition, What’s between, between? curated by Jack Thomas Taylor, curator of art, media and technology, and Amal Zeyad Ali, assistant curator, running from January 26 to May 14, 2026.

The exhibition will offer audiences the chance to examine the meanings and “Gulf Futurism,” a term coined by Qatari artist Sophia Al-Maria, looking at the histories, dreaming, futures, and the Gulf region as a contested field shaped by rapid transformation, speculative imagination, and lived experience across the region, moving beyond singular narratives toward complex, in-between realities. Through loaned works, new commissions, and digital media, it examines the tensions between tradition and hyper-modernity, heritage and innovation, human and machine.

A key theme of the exhibition is the metaphor of salt, which is used as an analytical framework to reference histories of trade, labor, ecology, and extraction, while also pointing to contemporary conditions of rapid change. Building on this conceptual lens, the exhibition is structured around the Earth’s atmospheric layers, moving from the troposphere, linked to global trade and consumption, to the thermosphere, associated with satellite infrastructure, communication systems, and space ambitions, and inviting visitors to consider how multiple temporal and spatial scales intersect in shaping the region today.

“With What’s between, between?, the Media Majlis Museum further advances Northwestern Qatar’s academic mission by translating research, critical inquiry, and creative practice into a interative exhibition engaging the wider local community,” said Marwan M. Kraidy, dean and CEO of Northwestern Qatar. “The exhibition reflects our commitment to evidence-based storytelling, offering audiences a means to engage thoughtfully with the region’s layered histories and its fast-changing present, and to think critically about how futures are imagined and shaped. This approach is a reflection of NU-Q's values of excellence, collaboration, community, and sustainability.”

Alfredo Cramerotti, director of Media Majlis Museum, added: “As a next-generation university museum, Media Majlis Museum is interested in the spaces where meaning is unsettled. This exhibition embraces the in-between, not as ambiguity to be resolved, but as a condition to be explored. It asks whose futures are being imagined, and who gets to participate in shaping them.”

More than 20 artists from across the Gulf region have contributed to the exhibition, offering peripheral, poetic, and critical perspectives on life in the Gulf today. This includes Ahaad Alamoudi (Saudi Arabia); Ahmad Makia (UAE); Amna AlBaker (Qatar); Aseel AlYaqoub (Kuwait); Ayman Yossri Daydban (Saudi Arabia/Palestine); Eman Ali (Oman/Bahrain); Faisal Saeed Al Zahrani (Saudi Arabia); Farah Al Qasimi (UAE); Fatima Mohammed (Qatar); Khaled Bin Afif (Saudi Arabia); Larissa Sansour (Palestine); Lulua Alyahya (Saudi Arabia); Sheikh Maktoum Al Maktoum (UAE); Manal AlDowayan (Saudi Arabia); Nasser Al Salem (Saudi Arabia); Rashed AlShashai (Saudi Arabia); Sarah Abu Abdullah (Saudi Arabia); Sarah Aradi (Bahrain); Talal Al Najjar (UAE); Tarek Darwish (Qatar); Voyyd (Qatar); and Zahrah Al Ghamdi (Saudi Arabia).

The exhibition will be accompanied by a special publication, What’s between, between?, which brings together a collection of original essays, dialogues, and critical reflections on Gulf futures through artistic, theoretical, and speculative perspectives. Drawing on voices from art, media, theory, and cultural practice, the volume explores the debates that have shaped—and continue to challenge—the Gulf Futurism aesthetic, highlighting its political, technological, and social dimensions.

Contributors include leading artists, writers, and thinkers whose practices have shaped critical discourse around Gulf futures, among them Sophia Al-Maria, an artist and writer whose work has been instrumental in articulating the aesthetics and politics of Gulf Futurism. Together with a broader network of regional and international voices, the volume offers readers a layered, multifaceted engagement with the Gulf’s evolving cultural landscape.

The Museum’s contributions will extend beyond the exhibition this spring. Coinciding with Art Basel Qatar and Web Summit Qatar week, it will also present a dynamic public program of curator-led walkthroughs, majlis-style conversations, workshops, and educational initiatives.

What’s between, between? will be on view at Media Majlis Museum from January 26 to May 14, 2026. Admission is free and open to the public.