Outsourcing museology

Last week's Economist writes about the new hotspot of cultural preservation and art patronage: The middle-east. Over the past decade, Qatar and and the United Arab Emirates have been setting up new and ever the more lavish displays of cultural heritage. Abu Dhabi has a branch of the Louvre, an offshoot of the Guggenheim will soon be built by his eminence, Frank Gehry, whereas Dubai has become the new center for art collectors.

As the Economist points out, Qatar is making a bold step by opening up a museum of Islamic Art, but everything else in the region screams "western". Though stand-out asian and islamic objects are also being both sold and displayed, the focus is clearly on appropriating western culture (Manhattan skylines, Frank Gehry buildings, outsourced western museums etc.) Even with the museum of Islamic Art, one should stop and think for a second about the very concretely western origin of the museum and the fact that the building is designed by I.M. Pei who, though a Chinese, is associated most with western architecture.

On the one hand, there is nothing wrong with adopting culture. No society lives in a bubble, and the criss-crossing of heritage can often be diversifying not homogenizing. The Emirates seem to be crossing the line between admixture and imitation with great enthusiasm though. A 1.6 billion dollar cooperation project with Hollywood?

It would be easy enough to dismiss this as an example of Western civilization excercising "soft power" over the Arab world - clearly the Emirates and Qatar have enough money to buy the prestige that comes along with the posession of valuable western cultural treasures. If you can't defeat the enemy, then join him and so on.

But there is also another, different viewpoint. Western billionaires, art collectors and run-of-the-mill tourists are looking increasingly towards the Persian Gulf for leisure. The potential revenue the Emirates and/or Qatar could generate from these projects could far outweigh the costs. And if the Islamic heritage manages to survive alongside the flashy, occasionally corny, but certainly appealing skyscrapers and branches of internationally known brand-names in the culture industry, then maybe it's the Emirates, who are the exploiters and not the other way around.