As part of its continued bid to become a major art center, Qatar will launch a quadrennial in November 2026.

The first edition, titled “Unruly Water,” will be curated by Tom Eccles, executive director of the Center for Curatorial Studies and the Hessel Museum of Art at Bard College in Annandale-on-Hudson, New York; Ruba Katrib, chief curator and director of curatorial affairs at MoMA PS1 in New York; Mark Rappolt, editor-in-chief of ArtReview magazine; and Shabbir Husain Mustafa, a curator at the National Gallery of Singapore. The exhibition’s name is a reference to a book by Sunil S. Amrith about bodies of water in South Asia.

The quadrennial will take place in Al Riwaq, an exhibition pavilion next to the Museum of Islamic Art that has hosted blockbuster shows by such artists as Jeff Koons and Takashi Murakami.

Among the projects to be included in the show is a cooking performance, titled untitled 2025 (no bread no ashes), by Rirkrit Tiravanija that was unveiled on Wednesday at the corner of MIA Park, outside of Al Riwaq, as part of the Evolution Nation festival. The performance involves baking bread with different bakers each Friday from 4–6pm that represent the range of cultures represented in Qatar. Tiravanija will be one of 58 artists participating in the quadrennial’s inaugural edition.