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The work acquired global recognition across borders and contexts—and notably gave its title to the 60th International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia in 2024. In Doha, the project will take on a specific and meaningful form by incorporating the main languages spoken both within Qatar and by the diverse communities that converge there, as a transnational hub at the geographical point of encounter of various regions and continents. Each phrase will appear in a different language, illuminating the universal condition of being foreign, and questioning the very notion of belonging, identity, and national borders.

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ABOUT ARTISTS : Claire Fontaine

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Claire Fontaine is a collective of feminist conceptual artists founded by Fulvia Carnevale and James Thornhill in Paris in 2004. Since 2017, she lives and works in Palermo. Her name is inspired by Duchamp’s iconic ready-made, the urinal entitled Fontaine, and a famous brand of French notebooks (Clairefontaine); it defines a space where the biographies of the artist are not directly connected to their artworks, allowing their research to become a space of freedom and de-subjectivization. The use of appropriation and hijacking in her work stems from the same intention: not highlighting the excellence of the artist’s unique singularity but activating the forms and the forces within visual culture and underlining their political content. Claire Fontaine works in video, sculpture, painting, and writing. The 60th Venice Biennale in 2024 is entitled “Foreigners Everywhere” after a seminal series of works by Claire Fontaine. Adriano Pedrosa, the curator of the biennale, took inspiration from the artist’s ongoing series of neons, declaring in the press conference: “The backdrop for the work is a world rife with multifarious crises and challenges around the movement and existence of people across countries, nations, territories, and borders, which reflect the perils and pitfalls of language, translation, nationality, expressing differences and disparities conditioned by identity, race, gender, sexuality, freedom, and human development.” She has published with Diversity of Aesthetics a conversation with Iman Ganji and José Rosales entitled “Foreigners Everywhere” in 2022, a comprehensive anthology of her writings with Semiotext(e) in 2020 entitled Human Strike and the Art of Creating Freedom, with a foreword by Hal Foster. The anthology was also published in French by Diaphanes and in Italian by Derive Approdi. The artist’s books include Some Instructions for the Sharing of Private Property with One Star Press in 2011 and Vivre, vaincre with Dilecta in 2009. Two monographs on the artist have been published by Koenig Books: Newsfloor in 2020, with texts by Anita Chari and Jaleh Mansoor, and Foreigners Everywhere in 2011, with texts by Letizia Ragaglia, Bernard Blistène, Nicolas Liucci-Goutnikov, John Kelsey, and Hal Foster. In 2024, Anita Chari published A User’s Manual to Claire Fontaine at Lenz Press. Recent solo shows include: “Beauty is a Ready-made”, currently at the Maison Hermès Dosan Park, Séoul, 2024; “Star Reply Forward Copy Info Delete”, Memphis, Linz, Austria, 2022; “Siamo con voi nella notte”, Museo del 900, Florence, 2020; “I- WE-YES”, Studio Concreto, Lecce, Italy, 2020; “Your Money and Your Life”, Galerias Municipais, Lisboa, 2019; “La Borsa e la vita”, Palazzo Ducale, Gênes, Italy, 2019; “Les printemps seront silencieux”, Le Confort Moderne, Poitiers, France, 2019; ”#displaced”, Städtische Galerie Nordhorn, Nordhorn, Germany, 2019; “Fortezzuola”, Museo Pietro Canonica, Villa Médici, Rome, 2016; “Tears”, Jewish Museum, New York, 2013; “1493”, Espacio 1414, San Juan, Porto Rico, 2013; “Sell Your Debt”, Queen’s Nails, San Francisco, USA, 2013; “Redemptions”, CCA Wattis, San Francisco, USA, 2013; “Carelessness causes fire”, Audain Gallery, Vancouver, Canada, 2012; “Breakfast starts at midnight”, Index, The Swedish Contemporary Art Foundation, Stockholm, 2012; “M-A-C-C-H-I-N-A-Z-IO-N-I”, Museion, Bolzano, Italy, 2012; “P.I.G.S.”, MUSAC, Castilla y León, Spain, 2011; “Economies”, Museum of Contemporary Art, North Miami, USA, 2010.

Art Basel Qatar is Art Basel's fifth premier event and our newest show, running February 5-7, 2026 in Doha. Anchored in a dynamic long-term partnership with Qatar Sports Investments (QSI) and QC+, Art Basel Qatar will debut as a concisely curated showcase celebrating Qatar’s vibrant cultural landscape and the dynamic arts ecosystem of the MENA region. The inaugural edition of Art Basel Qatar will be held at M7, a creative hub in the heart of Doha, as well as at the Doha Design District in downtown Msheireb.

mpefm QATAR fair art press release