Manzar: A Perspective into the Art and Architecture of Pakistan

A rare and first-of-its-kind exhibition called “MANZAR: Art and Architecture from Pakistan 1940s to Today” is on display at the National Museum of Qatar and it is a treasure trove of over 200 artworks that shine light into the history of the country and its tumultuous path to the present.

Manzar features over 200 artworks, showcasing modern and contemporary arts and architecture from Pakistan over the past eight decades. Designed by renowned architect Raza Ali Dada, the exhibition is titled Manzar, derived from Urdu and translates to a scene, view, landscape, or perspective, capturing the extraordinary vitality of the diverse art scenes in Pakistan and its diasporas.

Qatar Museums unveiled Manzar: Art and Architecture from Pakistan 1940s to Today, commemorating the diverse work of painters, photographers and architects who have shaped the narratives, histories, and contemporary perspectives of Pakistan’s cultures since the 1940s. This major showcase is organised by the future Art Mill Museum and presented in collaboration with the National Museum of Qatar, the nation’s preeminent institution for art and culture, as the host of the exhibition in its temporary gallery spaces. The exhibition is on view until 31 January 2025.

The Amir His Highness Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, Her Excellency Sheikha Al Mayassa bint Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, Chairperson of Qatar Museums, His Excellency Muhammad Shahbaz Sharif, Prime Minister of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, inaugurated the exhibition, alongside Catherine Grenier, Director of Concept of the Art Mill Museum and the curatorial team.

Manzar comprises of paintings, drawings, photographs, videos, sculptures, installations, tapestries and miniatures, as well as commissioned works by artists and architects, unfolds across twelve sections. The exhibition reveals how artists responded to and reimagined international modernist movements, offering a unique insight into Pakistan’s rich artistic and architectural landscape.

The exhibition starts with a large watercolour on paper by Ali Kazim called The Conference of Birds, a 12^th century Persian allegory that depicts the spiritual journey to find the mythological bird. With a background music by Khawar Jawad, and vocals reciting the excerpt from the poem Mantiq Al Tair by Fariduddin Attar, the first art piece that welcomes one to Manzar is a reflection of humanity’s quest for purpose. This piece is from the Art Mills Collection and fullfils its purpose of ushering in art enthusiasts to the wonders of Pakistan.

The Art of Exhibition Design

The exhibition is designed in a way of discovery, the visitors move from each space learning something insightful, driving them forward, through the undefined gallery spaces within NMoQ to find out more.

Architect Raza Ali Dada spoke to us about the process of the exhibition design.

“The nation is a rich blend of cultures and histories closely tied to their varying geography from the Arabian sea to the Himalayas. The beauty lies in the coming together of such diverse entities, cultures and languages etc. The show is already curated in a way that the diversity and a rich pleasurable complexity that comes with it, is inherent in the way the exhibition unfolds to a visitor. Conceptually, in terms of its sequence and visually, the stories, backgrounds and the works on display naturally immerse a visitor in that richness and beauty of various backgrounds,” says Raza Ali.

The National Museum of Qatar has gallery spaces that makes designing the exhibition spaces quite challenging.

For Raza Ali, the space was a challenge which offered itself as a canvas for the story telling of the exhibition.

Raza Ali likes to simplify things, and this principal holds good in his architectural and interior projects. He has tried the same principle here as well; he tried not to differentiate two-dimensional paintings, 3-dimensional sculptures or architecture models into silos while designing the spaces.

“It was all about what the curator’s was trying to say, whether it was through paintings or sculpture, they were treated as similar and not differentiated into singular entities,” he says.

“The space as such is tricky and in order to deal with it, I was trying to flatten all other challenges to keep the focus on the space as such,” he says. Hence the focus is not on grouping the art forms but creating a visitor experience that makes one move through the spaces created by the Museum structure. “In fact, the museum elements are embraced wherever possible to continue the museum experience for visitors.”

“The exhibition space, like the museum, has a unique and highly expressive form unlike flexible gallery spaces. The exhibition design and layout, while addressing this complex space, is centred on creating a visitor experience where relationship to the exhibition content is paramount. Only necessary elements required to host such a volume of work have been designed while carefully carrying the unique elements of the museum space along with it where possible,” he says.

The architecture of Pakistan, according to Raza Ali takes off from its pre-Independence days with colonial styled buildings that sets the tone for the post-colonial architecture as well.

One of the important buildings featured at Manzar is the Alhamra Art Centre that has loyally served the public through its facilities and outdoor spaces for over 40 years, and to date remains the first choice for art and culture related events in a culture and literature-rich Lahore. This building is one of the best examples of the architecture of Pakistan that celebrates the place and context it is in.

The Alhamra Arts Council in the 1970s commissioned architect Nayyar Ali Dada, who is Raza Ali Dada’s father, to design a 1,000 seat multi-purpose auditorium that was built and completed in 1979.

“A minimal but potent expression that connects to ancient Sufi shrines and the walled city of Lahore in through its sculptural forms, boldly uses brick, the basic and local building unit in Lahore as the material of its expression, triggering a revival of the brick all over Lahore as a popular choice of material for many buildings. This reinforced the idea of local and regional expression and strengthened the local construction economy as well,” explains Raza Ali of the building that won the Aga Khan Award for Architecture in 1998.

The jury found the complex to be “a rare example of flexible spaces that has enabled several additions to be made over time, each of which has in turn enhanced, rather than detracted from, its overall architectural value. This is a very popular and successful public building, projecting its complexities in a simple and powerful manner.”

The Art that Sets the Stage

The exhibition is curated by Caroline Hancock, Art Mill Museum Senior Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art; Aurélien Lemonier, Art Mill Museum Curator of Architecture, Design and Gardens; and Zarmeene Shah, independent curator, writer and Director of Graduate Studies at the Indus Valley School of Art and Architecture (IVS) in Karachi, with Art Mill Museum Senior Exhibition Project Manager Aebhric Coleman.

According to  Zarmeene Shah, independent curator, writer and Director of Graduate Studies at the Indus Valley School of Art and Architecture (IVS) in Karachi, artists from Pakistan have created narratives that is indicative of the social climate and is reflective of the existing tumultuous politics of the country.

There is no greater example of this than the lenticular print by Farida Batool titled, “Nai Reesan Shehr Lahore Diyan’ which translates to “There is no match for the city of Lahore”. This print shows a carefree girl going about her playful skip in an atmosphere of unrest in one of the main streets of Lahore which also indicates the spirit of the city in the face of challenges. Farida Batool is an artist, writer and educator who grapples with the sociopolitical realities and uses lenticular prints to convey her conflicting emotions as a woman subjected to different forms of surveillance, whether through the state or the media. Her work presents these tangible and intangible moments through prints.

Another interesting work by contemporary artist Bani Abidi is The News, a double channel video that draws attention to the ironic event of how a single occurrence is portrayed contrarily by mass media in India and Pakistan. This touches on the challenges of nationalism, particularly those stemming from the Indo-Pakistan conflicts and the violent legacy of the 1947 Partition. The use of two screens shows the critical divide and how this affects everyday life and perceptions. The artist respectively portrays an Indian and a Pakistani news anchor broadcasting the same incident, but with the a biased reportage towards the depicted national identities.

Invisible Border by Khadim Ali is perhaps the most spectacular works showcased within the gallery space. Born of Afghan Hazara parentage and brought up in Pakistan/Afghanistan border, artist Khadim Ali explores the normalisation of war and the experience of refugees through this poetic installation that comprises of an exquisite-long tapestry, handwoven by a community of Hazara men and women, some of who have lost family members in war.

In this large-scale tapestry, Ali explores the impact of war, trauma and displacement drawing parallels from the Book of Shahnameh, a Persian literary masterpiece by Persian poet Ferdowsi. Ali constructs images based on history, poetry, mythology and politics to investigate through art, the evnts of wars in Afghanistan.

Lawrence Gardens by David Alesworth who is based in Bristol, United Kingdom and Karachi, Pakistan is a hand embroidery in dyed sheep’s wool and other fibres into an ancient Kashan carpet. This work is a piece of history in itself. The artist revisits the garden’s colonial past while highlighting its continued role as a symbol of cultural heritage.

In the 1860s the gardens were named after Sir John Lawrence, the then Viceroy of India. After the Partition of India, the gardens were renamed Bagh-e-Jinnah in honour of Muhammad Jinnah, the founder of Pakistan. While Alesworth acknowledges the botanical gardens of the Empire, here he maps the post-colonial addition of the Mughal style garden to the original colonial botanical garden.

The Process

While the stunning artworks mark the huge influence of the socio-cultural happenings, the struggle for democracy, migrations, the huge collection of art that has been sourced for this exhibition, throw light on the artistic inclinations and the wave of creativity that enveloped the region.

“I am a guest curator and the exhibition was a result of two years of dedicated work; but the Art Mill Museum has been on the research for this since a longer duration,” says Zarmeene.

The exhibition is designed chronological, though not strictly so, but it is also thematic, according to Zarmeene. She explains the process of bringing this huge body of work together.

“The themes explored range from nation-building and regionalism to the politics of land and water, emphasising the connection between Pakistan’s cultural heritage and contemporary practices. The exhibition hopes to connect with and pay tribute to the many communities in Qatar who have origins in this part of the world and act as a bridge between different cultures,” she explains.

“All of these are ancient lands; they did not come into being just after the partition. So, we felt that it was important to focus on the period before the partition to give an insight into the history of the land, its people, and the struggle,” says Zarmeene.

The exhibition and the collections within was made possible by unprecedented loans from public institutions, including the Alhamra Art Museum in Lahore and the Pakistan National Council of the Arts in Islamabad, private collections from Pakistan, Dubai, London, and New York, as well as works from Qatar Museums collections.

This groundbreaking exhibition marks a significant development in Qatar’s cultural landscape, bringing to light lesser-known global art histories and demonstrating how they weave into broader social and cultural trends.

MANZAR: Art and Architecture from Pakistan 1940s to Today is presented as part of the Fall/Winter 2024-2025 Season of Qatar Creates – a platform dedicated to amplifying the voices of Qatar’s creative industries and promoting cultural activities within the country.