In the first version of Countryside, presented at the Guggenheim in New York in 2020, we picked a number of sites all over the world, where the countryside was going through drastic changes and acute upheavals. Together, they presented a global overview of crisis and potential that was unfolding outside our cities and therefore went largely unnoticed. In this second iteration, we present “the Arc,” a contiguous band of “Countryside” that runs from South Africa through East Africa, via Qatar, Central Asia, all the way to Eastern China. It is an arc of landlocked rural areas, still inhabited largely in traditional ways, both in Africa and Central Asia, and where only the Middle East is undergoing rapid modernization. Today, Africa, the Middle East, and Central Asia are home to 85 percent of the world’s population. By 2100, Africa will have become the most populous continent, surpassing Asia. Qatar and its neighboring region sit at the geographic and economic crossroads of this demographic transformation. We traced this arc because it encompasses both traditional and modern forms of living. Rather than a chain of crises, it represents an arc of potential, in which we can consider how much might change and what traditions should be maintained. Most of the arc is mountainous; the landscape itself resists a wholesale modernization, though its breathtaking beauty faces mounting pressure. The Arc is replete with new typologies, such as coding schools in barns aiming to train the next generation of ruralists in the digital languages of the future, while maintaining ancient traditions like shepherding. These typologies introduce new relevancies and offers new prototypes for inhabiting the earth in sustainable ways. As cities become more and more congested and expensive, maybe a pivotal moment has come: we can conceive a future that reverses the universal movement to the city that has robbed the countryside of its inhabitants. This exhibition examines “new” ways to inhabit the countryside, which together show that the city is not the only model for pursuing a rich and fulfilling life. Countryside: A Place to Live, Not to Leave, an exhibition by AMO / OMA presented by Qatar Museums in collaboration with Qatar Fund for Developmen, Ministry of Environment and Climate Change, Hassad Food, and Kahramaa, is on view in Doha until 30 June 2026. More information: https://lnkd.in/epxCN5X7
