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This fragment is part of the "CulturalxCollabs - Weaving the Future" carpet.
Through the fragment we trace the journey of the fragment owners and their collabs as they explore, experiment and creatively advance socially relevant themes. Here is the fragment as we are sending it on this three and a half-year journey.
Follow this story to observe the transformations the fragment undergoes over the course of these years...
The journey begins...
...with Haya Alansari
As an assistant conservator at Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art, I often work behind the scenes—handling stories through materials, fibers, and quiet care. But when the fragment from the Caucasian Dragon Carpet arrived, it didn’t stay behind the scenes. I brought it with me into the exhibition Qatar: Close to My Soul—into the textures, gestures, and voices of Qatari modern and contemporary art.
It didn’t sit in a vitrine. It moved—from dhow paintings to daily life portraits, from hurufiyya to abstraction. It sat quietly, respectfully, beside each artwork. Listening. Leaning in.
In the final gallery, as “Allah Ya O’mri Qatar” played, it lay on the floor. Not displayed, but present. A guest with its own story of loss, renewal, and movement. A woven fragment meeting a sung devotion.
As Hans Ulrich Obrist later wrote, this wasn’t about display—it was about hospitality. For me, cultural diversity is just that: the power of one fragment to meet another culture and not break, but resonate. To be held, remembered, and passed on.
— Haya Alansari
CulturalxCollabs: A Fragment Walks into a Museum (on a Monday)
"On Mondays, galleries the rest. The tools come out. And this time, the carpet came with."
This isn’t a showroom. It is Mathaf's conservation lab. Where art lives between exhibits—in careful hands and rolling carts. On a maintenance day, the fragment joined the brushes, gloves, and even the silverfish trap, not as an outsider but as part of the workflow. It became a witness to the backstage rituals that preserve Qatar’s visual history. Conservation, like weaving, is quiet work. But it’s where the stories stay alive
Qatar: Close to My Soul
At Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art
Drawn from the collection of Sheikh Abdulla bin Ali Al Thani
Modern and contemporary art in Qatar emerged as a visual extension of the political, economic, and sociocultural context of the country in the second half of the twentieth century. Qatar: Close to My Soul is a poetic journey through the nation’s visual culture, revealing a rich diversity of artists and thematic approaches across generations.
Front and Back
About the Project
The Museum for Islamic Art's project, #CulturalxCollabs - Weaving the future, celebrates the transformative power of cultural exchange and the shared threads that unite us all. All the things we love, have loved and will ever love come from cultural exchange, migration and diversity, or as we like to call it #CulturalxCollabs.
100 carpet fragments, cut from a replica of the iconic dragon carpet, will travel the world (delivered by DHL). The fragments will ignite #CulturalxCollabs with co-creators, inspiring human ingenuity, fostering community and ultimately demonstrating how cultural exchange enriches all our lives.
Follow #CulturalxCollabs on Instagram as the project unfolds...
...or learn more here
Weaving the Future
Join us on a journey with 100 carpet fragments as they travel around the world for three and a half years, finding temporary homes while bridging cultural boundaries, fostering worldwide community united by the power of human stories.
Fragment Journeys
100 carpet fragments part of the "CulturalxCollabs - Weaving the Future" project. Follow their journeys through the ever changing owners' over three and a half years.
Where is the Dragon?
The star of the "CulturalxCollabs - Weaving the Future" project is a so-called Caucasian dragon carpet from the 17th century. A dragon carpet - all well and good - but: where is the dragon?
