Pipilotti Rist's inaugural survey exhibition in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, titled Electric Idyll, marks a significant milestone in the contemporary art scene of the region. Tailored as a total installation specifically designed for the Fire Station in Doha, Qatar, the showcase amalgamates both archival pieces and new commissions from the esteemed Swiss-born artist. Originally established in 1982, the Fire Station served as the headquarters for Qatar's civil defence authority until its operational tenure concluded in late 2012. Following a transformative renovation in 2014, the space underwent a remarkable transition into an "adaptive reuse project," heralding a new era of the Fire Station: Artist in Residence initiative and a seminal acknowledgement of the imperative to preserve early-modern architectural heritage within Qatar.

Massimiliano Gioni, NY-based curator, contemporary art critic, artistic director at the New Museum and curator of the exhibition Electric Idyll, says: "Pipilotti wanted to have a show at the Fire Station. She not only conceived the whole installation, but she worked with the context of the building, which she often does when she works in more or less unusual settings. She says she likes to caress the building and she did so by using colour filters on the windows. The central assumption when we started working on the show was to use the space as one environment, which makes it into a kind of living organism. The show changes as you go through it, the show changes with your presence. And that makes it quite unusual. It's almost like a musical score—how images turn off and on, in which projectors fall asleep and you'll even notice that projectors have little dresses in the exhibition, which is typical of Pipilotti. She almost treats technology as a living creature.”

Pioneering her artistic vision amidst the technological boom of the 1990s, Rist emerged as a prominent figure among a cohort of artists exploring the intricate interplay between technology, nature and the pervasive influence of images in contemporary society. Internationally acclaimed for her innovative video installations, Rist's artworks offer audiences immersive experiences that blend mesmerising projections with communal moments of surreal introspection. Rist talks about her works as “a massage for the eyes…the senses, and the minds” of her viewers.

Comprising 14 artworks woven into a singular installation, Electric Idyll invites the audience into a captivating digital landscape. Within this dynamic environment, Rist introduces new participatory pieces, engaging in a compelling dialogue with some of her most revered creations. Gioni asserts: “Electric Idyll is Pipilotti Rist’s largest presentation in the Middle East. It follows Your Brain to Me, My Brain to You, a commission at the National Museum of Qatar in Doha, which was unveiled in 2022. It's an opportunity to see her work in context and it combines works from the 1990s and new works that were realised specifically for this presentation. The idea early on was to transform the exhibition, less in a chronological survey and more into a kind of total environment. Rist took on the challenge of transforming the Fire Station which is a concrete building so somehow a very orthogonal, hard space into a softer, more welcoming space. So, this survey is unusual in the sense that it treats the exhibition as almost a musical score in which videos follow each other and soundtracks travel from one corner of the space to the other. The walls are covered by tapestries and the entire exhibition is somehow softened by the presence of fabric, cushions and pillows. The viewers are invited to interact with the works. There is a recurring preoccupation in Rist’s work since the 1990s—the idea that we should experience images with our bodies not only with our eyes and this exhibition proposes a kind of culmination of that research”.

Throughout her work Rist encourages viewers to rethink their physical relationship to media, inviting them to participate more fully in their experience of art and encouraging a more active and critical engagement with moving images in their everyday lives. For this reason, the artist has enveloped the exhibition spaces with textile wall prints and curtains and disseminated objects throughout the exhibition: pillows, and wooden gym rings hanging from the ceiling so that the public can lie on the floor and gently swing while watching her video artworks.

“I want people to experience…their bodies and the images that surround them so that they might be encouraged to go outside and look at the world again and see it as that great, incredibly beautiful, super complex, ever-changing spectacle that it is,” says Rist.

As visitors step into the realm of Electric Idyll, they are immediately embedded in a world where sensory experiences prevail. The sheen of materials catches the eye, juxtaposed against the ethereal translucence of chiffon curtains that seems to transport one into a dreamlike state. Accompanied by meditative soundscapes that gently lull the soul, the music works its magic, slowing down heart rates and beckoning participants to join in involuntary harmonies. In this hypnotic environment, one finds themselves irresistibly drawn into a journey of exploration. Artefacts, nearly camouflaged against the backdrop of intricate multicoloured textile wall paintings, reveal themselves through subtle glimmers, reflective surfaces, delicate frames and textures. Each discovery offers a moment of pause, encouraging viewers to delve deeper into the layers of meaning inserted within the exhibition's landscape.

The exhibition begins with three artworks: Shape Shifter Window, Inside Out Inside Window, and Fluid Portal Window (2024). These digital paintings, framed as abstracted windows, open Rist's recurring theme of exploring the intricate relationship between our inner lives and the external world. In Rist's work, windows, screens and membranes are transformed, offering new perspectives on the connections between interior and exterior spaces. Through digital technology and tactile experiences, Rist seamlessly merges domestic settings with natural landscapes, while also reconfiguring bodies into celestial constellations. This fusion expands viewers' senses and prompts contemplation on the profound interconnectedness of our surroundings.

Positioned prominently near the exhibition's entrance, Ever Is Over All (1997) stands as a cornerstone of Rist's artistic legacy. This acclaimed projection, recognised with the best artwork award at the 1997 Venice Biennale and housed in prestigious museum collections like MoMA in New York and Kyoto's National Museum of Modern Art, captures the essence of Rist's thematic exploration. In the video, a young woman exuberantly smashes car windows with a flower, serving as a potent symbol of female empowerment and societal disruption.

The exhibition is punctuated by a series of what the artist calls "electric islands": interactive displays where video projections, furniture pieces, carpets and household items merge into expansive still lifes awaiting engagement from the audience. Within these dynamic "living rooms," viewers are not just spectators but integral components of the artwork itself. Videos are projected onto them and every available surface, transforming both viewers and surroundings into screens and conduits of imagery—a fascinating fusion where the boundaries between the biological and electronic blur. This immersive exploration epitomises Rist's ongoing investigation into the convergence of human senses and digital technologies, offering a visionary glimpse into a future where the organic and electronic seamlessly intertwine in a new realm of sensory experience.

Positioned against the furthest walls of the central gallery, Worry Will Vanish (2014) emerges as a breathtaking testament to Rist's prowess in creating expansive digital panoramas. This immersive artwork orchestrates a sensory-rich voyage through landscapes, bodies and technological realms, seamlessly blending real-life footage with digital imagery. From sweeping vistas of natural wonders to intimate explorations of microscopic realms, the camera's lens traverses diverse terrains, offering viewers a captivating glimpse into the convergence of human senses and artificial technologies. In Worry Will Vanish, Rist's visionary exploration of the intersection between the biological and the electronic unfolds with intensity. Through a masterful fusion of filming techniques, viewers are transported into a realm where the boundaries between reality and imagination disappear. Each frame teems with rich detail, from the delicate dew on blades of grass to the intricate patterns of veins on leaves and human skin. Within this immersive tapestry, viewers are treated to a kaleidoscopic array of imagery: the intricacies of biological structures and the interplay of light and texture. From the swirl of water bubbles to the cosmic expanse of a rotating starry sky, from a closeup of eyelashes to the thickets of nettles, each element invites contemplation.

Gioni comments: “Landscape is a central theme in Rist’s work, which can be seen over and over in this exhibition. The largest piece in the show is a work from 2014-2015 called Worry Will Vanish which is a panoramic landscape shot in the Azores Island and combined with images that transform the interior of bodies into a kind of landscape themselves. There are other references to landscape in a series of new digital paintings, which the artist describes as windows. There is a more domestic landscape in the kind of interactive islands as the artist calls them, which are made of furniture and carpets. Rist has always been fascinated by landscapes. Sadly, she's fascinated by nature as it disappears. So her work is often a reflection also on ecology, what in the '70s would have been called Ecofeminism. It's interesting to think of landscape also in the context of Qatar where a sense of vastness, particularly in the desert, reconnects to the tradition of the sublime, the notion of a landscape that is both beautiful and unsettling or terrifying and that is very much in keeping with Rist’s research. More precisely, Rist is also fascinated by what we could call a technological sublime—the notion of a vastness of information and data that she transformed into an experience of beauty and maybe fear or unsettling evidence of its vastness.”

In a tucked-away corner gallery, Rist unveils a miniature dollhouse nestled within a wooden crate with a sign “fragile”. Yet, within this diminutive microcosm lies an unexpected twist—the moon has seemingly collided with this tiny world, casting its celestial glow over a replicated miniature bedroom. Complete with video projections mirroring those encountered throughout the exhibition, Rist once again blurs the boundaries between the infinitesimally small and the expansively grand, forging connections that span the cosmos. Within the confines of this fragile container, originally designed for transporting art, a miniature model unfolds, accompanied by the delicate strains of a musical box.

Gioni concludes: “I think that what Pipilotti is proposing is quite unusual in the sense that it's an exhibition that allows for the public to physically enter the work. And I think that it’s a gently provocative proposition here. It's wonderful to see how people sometimes are hesitant to take off their shoes and literally enter the work. It's an example of what Rist and what great art can do, which is to play with our assumptions and expectations and gently subvert them”.

The exhibition 'Electric Idyll' will remain on view through June 1 2024 at the Doha Fire Station.