(MENAFN- Gulf Times) Qatar Solar Technologies (QSTec), in collaboration with Qatar Museums (QM), yesterday inaugurated Middle East and North Africa's first Solar Art Festival.
The two-week fair celebrates and promotes sustainability, the multiple uses of solar energy and awareness about the increasingly central role that renewable energy will occupy in future across the globe.
The festival is held under the patronage of QM chairperson HE Sheikha Al Mayassa bint Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani.
Running until November 25, the Solar Art Festival offers guided tours daily at Fire Station Artist in Residence, where organisers have brought together a collection of exceptional solar art commissions, created by globally renowned solar artists and Qatar-based students alike.
This year, the art exhibits in the public gallery include the works of a wide range of international artisans who have dedicated themselves to recreational uses of solar energy.
On display are articles from Olafur Eliasson's Little Sun, a global project that produces and distributes solar lamps for use in off-grid communities; Craig Colorusso's Sun Boxes, a composite of audio speakers and solar panels that come together to create an energising environment; Anthony Castronovo and Eleonora Nicoletti's Solar Shimmer, a kinetic screen that displays vibrant, geometric patterns using discarded plastics and solar energy; and the student-made Shams Mashrabiya, a living installation composed of artworks created by children in workshops preceding the festival.
Solar Art Festival also separately exhibits artworks developed by school and university-level students around Qatar, as part of QSTec's award-winning Shams Generation initiative, an interdisciplinary approach to education combining science, technology, engineering, art and mathematics.
Speaking to community members at the opening ceremony of the Festival, QSTec chairman and CEO Dr Khalid Klefeekh al-Hajri said, 'At Qatar Solar Technologies, we are wholeheartedly dedicated to supporting Qatar as it builds a modern, efficient and diversified energy sector to complement its national development objectives. And to achieve our transformative goals, we must all play a proactive role in turning the exciting potential of a renewable-energy driven future into a reality. One way to do this is to broaden our collective understanding of solar energy and inspirit ourselves through art and education.
Solar Art Festival is also the collaborative result of QSTec's organising partnership with Qatar Foundation, Ministry of Education and Higher Education, WISE Initiative, Qatar Green Building Council and Fire Station Artist in Residence.
Entry to the gallery is offered free of charge. A Solar Art Forum is scheduled today at 7pm, where registered public participants may meet the artists during an interactive panel discussion on solar design and the prospects of this field in the future.
A series of informative interactive workshops for children and adults are also scheduled throughout the fair's duration. To participate, interested community members may register for free by logging on to www.solarfestival.qa
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