Homecoming by Cai Guo-Qiang

Please note that access to the artwork is limited and typically available to resort guests only.

Cai Guo-Qiang (b. 1957, Quanzhou, China) is the winner of the 1999 Golden Lion at the Venice Biennale and the 2020 Isamu Noguchi Award, among other honours. For decades, Cai has been exploring various mediums, including gunpowder painting, drawing, installation, video, and performance.

In Homecoming, Cai attempts to link the history and culture of his hometown Quanzhou, China, with that of Doha. Quanzhou was once an important city on the Maritime Silk Road and one of the world’s largest seaports. Since the Tang Dynasty (618–907 CE), many Arabs have journeyed to the port city and settled down in Quanzhou. Subsequently, these Arabs have left behind many cemeteries.

This artwork is composed of sixty-two large, engraved granite rocks, evoking the tombstones seen in these Quanzhou Arab cemeteries with their shapes and inscriptions.

Three potent inscriptions repeated throughout this installation include:

Every soul shall taste of death (Qur’an 3:185)

The present life is but the joy of delusion (Qur’an 3:185)

Whoever dies as a foreigner dies a martyr (saying)

Through this artwork, Arabs who passed away in distant lands such as Quanzhou, China are welcomed home to the Arab Muslim world.