MUSEUMS,
A NEW DIPLOMATIC “INSTRUMENT”
OF THE GULF
Rich in hydrocarbons, on which they are dependent, the Gulf monarchies seek to diversify their resources while existing on the international scene. They are thus turning to tourism and culture, more specifically to these high places represented by museums, like the Louvre, which opened a “subsidiary” in 2017 in Abu Dhabi.
The Gulf monarchies represent one of the three global receiving basins of migrants along with North America and Western Europe. This implies a diversity of populations; We have thus seen, from the years 1960-1970, a first wave of establishment of national museums in these countries, with the aim of building and then consolidating the idea of a national identity, of a national narrative.
MODERNITY & ARAB IMAGINARY
Nowadays, States are implementing political strategies to create attractive and cultural poles shaped by emblematic architectures. This encourages large institutions known the world over to shift their focus to the Gulf to meet the demands of the monarchies. These strategies serve a political and social discourse that any state advocates when it begins a profound transformation of its society. Thanks to the establishment of museums, they can then serve the new generation and offer them another way of seeing the world.
In Qatar for example, the leaders consider that the instruction and the knowledge which confers a museum, could infuse in the company and help to an evolution of the representation which is made by the West of the Emirate [1].
Beyond being a foil that relies on a Western discourse, the museum’s architecture echoes an imaginary of Arab territory, raising the question of modernity without adopting Western culture. For this, the choice of architects has an important role in the competition of these monarchies. This is how the Frenchman Jean Nouvel designed the National Museum of Qatar as a rose of the sands, and the Louvre Abu Dhabi as a Medina. Also in Abu Dhabi, the Guggenheim project, thought out by the American Frank Gehry, is due to open in 2022, and the National Zayed Museum, designed by Norman Foster with the expertise of the British Museum, recalls the wings of a hawk, emblem of the Emirate.
The construction of museums and other cultural institutions in the Gulf sheds light both for the city and for the region itself: Sharjah was “Arab capital of culture” in 1998, just like Riyadh in 2000, Doha in 2010 and Manama in 2012.
But the region remains unstable and tensions are high, including between members of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). So in 2017, when Qatar is accused of supporting the Muslim Brotherhood and Iran, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates cut off all contact with Doha. This results, for example, by an “oblivion” to mention the Emirate on a map of the region, during the inauguration of Louvre Abu Dhabi.
THE PLACE OF FRANCE
This break is part of a wider competition – economic, military, diplomatic – between Qatar, more oriented towards the arts, a sector in which it invests a billion dollars per year, on the one hand, and Arabia Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, on the other hand, to consider post-oil and economic relations with foreign countries. They are setting up projects – Dubai World Expo between October 2020 and April 2021, the Saudi “Vision 2030”, among others – with the aim of being a cultural hubto benefit from the benefits of tourism activities and participate in local development.
Communication around art and culture is essential and uses territorial marketing techniques supported by targeted and bilateral partnerships – 2007 agreement between the United Arab Emirates and France, which also signs one with Saudi Arabia in 2018. These agreements legitimize their attractiveness and their ability to finance reputable institutions, affirming that exchanges between countries are intended to be geostrategic and economic, in particular for France. They allow French institutions to offer their skills and expertise as much as to earn an inflow of money to perfect their global reputation following the cuts in public subsidies since the 1990s. Thus, cultural policies are part of a larger system that includes security issues. Establishment in France serves the United Arab Emirates as much to defend their economic development against competitors such as Iran and Saudi Arabia, as it does in France in terms of market openings – Thales, Total.
Museums can be seen as responses to regional challenges. Their establishment obliges countries to negotiate with international partners to be in accordance with the new Gulf standards. But the construction of museums raises questions in terms of limits and censorship in the face of an institution conceived by the West, and which seeks to reinvent itself as a tool of influence. China has understood this well with the opening of a Pompidou Center in Shanghai in November 2019.
Sources: CARTO, Le Monde en cartes, number 58 – March / April 2020.
[1] Alexandre Kazerouni, The mirror of the Sheikhs: Museum and politics in the principalities of the Persian Gulf, PUF, 2017.