Tribune News Network
Doha
General Manager of the Cultural Village Foundation (Katara) Dr Khalid bin Ibrahim Al-Sulaiti Monday inaugurated a mural titled ‘Friends, Qatar and Cuba,’ created by Cuban artist Michel Lopez, in Building 15 opposite to Al-Hikma Square, in the presence of Cuban Ambassador to Qatar HE Oscar Leon Jones Eliza.
The mural is part of Katara’s project to adorn a number of buildings in the Cultural Village. Al-Sulaiti said: “The murals at Katara comprise a cultural project aiming to shed light on various cultural, heritage and artistic topics. There are murals concerned with Qatari heritage and others that deal with the issue of the environment, and they promote Katara’s message, which seeks to build bridges of communication between nations and make Katara a hub for creativity.” He pointed out that the mural comes at the time of the final preparations for the launch of the Qatar FIFA World Cup 2022.
HE Oscar Leon Jones Eliza stressed the strong relations between the two countries, praising all the efforts made in this context, and made it clear that this artwork symbolizes the friendship between the two nations. He said: “It is the first time for the artist to visit the Middle East and he wanted from this work to express the friendship between the two countries through the most important event of this year, the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.”
It is noteworthy that since 2015 the artist has devoted himself to painting the streets of Havana with pictures of giant children in a realistic way as if they would return to life. The artist excelled in drawing children in most of his murals.
The series of artistic murals that adorn a number of Katara buildings were executed by Qatari and international artists, such as ‘The Oryx Goes Forward’ and ‘Ocean in the Sky’ by the Argentinian artist Martin Ron; ‘The Challenge’ by the late Qatari artist Yousef Al-Sharif Al Sada, ‘Qatari Features’ by the Qatari artist Jassem Zaini, the mural of the Iraqi artist Nehru Qader Rashid, and two murals painting of the late Qatari artist Wafaa Al-Hamad.
