MUSEUMS
Qatar Museums is a Qatari government entity that oversees the Museum of Islamic Art (MIA), Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art, MIA Park, QM Gallery at Katara, ALRIWAQ DOHA Exhibition Space, the Al Zubarah World Heritage Site Visitor Centre and archaeological projects throughout Qatar, as well as the development of future projects and museums that will highlight its collections across multiple areas of activity including Orientalist art, photography, sports, children’s education, and wildlife conservation.
The remit of Qatar Museums goes beyond developing museums and art galleries and restoring archaeological sites to other activities, such as organizing and sponsoring various events locally and internationally. Notable examples of these are: the organization of the Doha Tribeca Film Festival in 2009, the installation of a Louise Bourgeois giant sculpture in the Qatar National Convention Center, the sponsoring of the World Cinema Foundation, the sponsoring of exhibitions abroad by international artists including Japanese artist Takashi Murakami’s exhibition in Château de Versailles and English artist and art collector Damien Hirst’s exhibition at Tate Modern in 2012.
FESTIVALS
Saristra Festival 2019 will be held on 2-3-4 of August at the old ruined village of Palia Vlachata of Sami in the island of Kefalonia.
Our inspiration for this project has been a group of local people who came together by their love for Old Vlachata, a village built on the mountainside of Kefalonia, which collapsed completely after being struck by the catastrophic earthquake of 1953.
Saristra Festival has a special sentimental value for all its group members. It is named after the central square of the village, ”Saristra”, the center of where their own grandparents had lived and created their whole life only to see it later on, within a few minutes, falling to pieces, hit by the destructive earthquake.
Today, the group of “Saristra” in an attempt to keep the village’s history and heritage alive, motivated by the wish to create a collective memory based in culture, is aiming to promote findings of modern music and contemporary cultural art. Linking the present with the past, Saristra Festival pays tribute to the old village’s celebrations, with a concept that applies to present-day terms.
Today, the group of “Saristra” in an attempt to keep the village’s history and heritage alive, motivated by the wish to create a collective memory based in culture, is aiming to promote findings of modern music and contemporary cultural art. Linking the present with the past, Saristra Festival pays tribute to the old village’s celebrations, with a concept that applies to present-day terms.
ABOUT
OLGA STEFATOUOlga Stefatou is a Greek independent media artist and photography specialist at Qatar museums.
In her personal work, Olga explores the idea of freedom and its connection to geopolitics, heritage and science. She believes that image making as an outcome or process aims to empower the personal and collective consciousness.
Olga has travelled worldwide and extensively in Asia, producing photography and video on social and humanitarian issues. Her work has been published in Der Spiegel, Amnesty International, NBC news, Le Monde, The Economist and Vanity Fair among others. In 2015 she participated in the pioneering project ‘Solar Impulse’ – the first attempt of solar flight around the world.
Olga studied photography at the Technological Educational Institute of Athens and in 2012 she obtained her Masters degree in Multimedia Journalism from the University of Bolton, UK based in Beijing, China.