Fire Station reopens with Chung Seoyoung show

Welcome to AL-MONITOR Doha.

After a stretch of closures and uncertainty due to the US-Isreal-Iran war, Doha’s cultural life is finding its footing again. Museums have reopened, galleries are welcoming visitors back and the city’s calendar is filling up with things genuinely worth making time for — from a Korean sculptor’s first Middle East solo show at a newly reopened Fire Station to a full-throttle Hot Wheels activation at Katara. There’s also a coastal heritage festival up north and an exhibition at MIA that reframes Afghanistan through art rather than headlines.

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P.S. Have feedback or tips on Doha's culture scene? Send them my way at contactus@al-monitor.com.

1. Leading the week: Chung Seoyoung at Fire Station

Chung Seoyoung, “A GOOSE,” 2007, cement, in Doha, Qatar. (Photo courtesy of Fire Station)

After weeks of closure, Fire Station has reopened, offering a timely reason to return. “Endless Facts,” the first Middle East solo exhibition by Korean artist Chung Seoyoung, is now on view through April 20.

Chung has spent over three decades working across sculpture, installation, drawing, sound and video, and this exhibition pulls together significant works from throughout her career alongside a new site-specific installation made in situ for Fire Station. The earliest piece dates back to 1993, made after her graduate studies in Stuttgart. Another work was originally commissioned for the Gwangju Biennale curated by the late Okwui Enwezor. Placed together in the Garage Gallery, the works are arranged deliberately so that the relationships between them do the talking.

The title is a useful entry point. Facts feel fixed, but Chung’s position is that they exist in chains, one leading to another upon careful looking. Her sculptures, often built from ordinary and industrial materials, are designed to catch you off guard. The mundane becomes something else entirely when you slow down.

Date: Until 20 April

Location: Fire Station, Garage Gallery

More details here.

2. Word on the street: Hot Wheels Speed City

 Stunt driver Terry Grant in action. (Photo courtesy of Monster Energy)

Hot Wheels has always occupied a specific corner of childhood memory, the kind of toy that turns a kitchen floor into a racetrack and a bored afternoon into something worth remembering. Hot Wheels Speed City, now open at Katara South Parking, is betting that the feeling translates at full scale.

The activation runs through May 2 and takes over the space with nine zones, each built around a different kind of thrill. Loop Land has speed slides designed for three age groups so nobody gets left out. The Kart Arena puts you behind an actual wheel with age-specific tracks for little speedsters, juniors and adults who haven’t entirely outgrown the competitive instinct. Speed Rush is geared toward younger kids and frames the whole thing as a racing academy, with pedaling, steering and designing challenges that make the experience feel like more than just burning energy.

The headline attraction is the Stunt Show, fronted by world-famous stunt driver Terry Grant. There are four shows nightly, and from what’s described, it’s the kind of performance that earns genuine gasps rather than polite applause.

Between zones there’s a Hot Wheels-themed cafe, a gift shop stocked with exclusives and enough going on that the visit doesn’t feel like it needs to be rushed.

Date: March 30 to May 2

Location: Katara South Parking

More details here. 

3. Doha diary

The exterior colonnade of Imam Muhammad Ibn Abdul Wahhab Mosque, Doha. (Photo courtesy of Visit Qatar)

• Imam Muhammad Ibn Abdul Wahhab Mosque Tour

This is a rare opportunity to step inside one of Doha’s most significant mosques, not as a passerby but as a guest. The tour is designed to offer a genuine look at Islamic prayer, architecture and the role of the mosque as a gathering place at the center of community life. It’s worth making time for if you’ve been curious and haven’t found the right entry point.

Date: April 3

Find more information here.

• Al Ruwais Maritime Heritage Festival

Al Ruwais sits on Qatar’s northern coast and carries the kind of history that doesn’t announce itself loudly. It was built by fishermen and pearl divers, shaped by the sea over generations and has remained one of the country’s oldest maritime towns. Visit Qatar’s 18-day activation brings that heritage to the surface through live craftsmanship demonstrations, traditional performances, culinary showcases and family activities, all set against the coastline. It’s the sort of thing that’s easy to keep meaning to visit — and then suddenly it's over.

Date: Until April 30

Location: Al Ruwais

Find more information here.

• ‘Empire of Light: Visions and Voices of Afghanistan’

Running at the Museum of Islamic Art until May 30, this exhibition does something quietly important. It draws on rare historical objects, traditional craftsmanship, and works by contemporary artists to present Afghanistan not as a country defined by recent headlines but as one of history’s great crossroads, a place where peoples, ideas and art forms met for centuries. The show is the result of a two-year collaboration with the Aga Khan Trust for Culture, and it makes a compelling case that this is a living culture, not a distant one.

Date: Until 30 May

Location: Museum of Islamic Art

Find more information here.