Buenos Aires to Doha: Argentina's art, music, food, and heritage shine in Qatar's Years of Culture

Qatar’s ‘Years of Culture’ with Argentina celebrated shared creativity, from archaeology and art to music and cuisine, strengthening cultural connections

Culture

5 min read

Ibrahim Fakhri

20 October, 2025

Last Update

24 October, 2025 17:49 PM

From archaeological sites to polo fields and kitchen tables, Argentina recently wrapped its vibrant chapter of the Qatar-Argentina and Chile Years of Culture.

This first-ever dual-country initiative highlighted the quiet power of cultural exchange, showing how music, art, food, and sport can bridge continents and bring Qatar together with two distinct Latin American nations in a shared creative conversation.

Launched in 2012 under the leadership of Sheikha Al Mayassa bint Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, the Years of Culture initiative was established to foster lasting global connections through an annual cycle of cultural partnerships.

Each year, a new partner nation steps forward, offering its own lens on art, heritage, and ideas — and this year’s unique approach saw two countries share the spotlight.

Argentina opened the exchange, while Chile now carries it forward, together offering a powerful platform for collaborations rooted in history yet alive with contemporary creativity.

Underground history to artistic exchange

One of the highlights in Buenos Aires was the unveiling of the La Cisterna archaeological site, which, hidden beneath the city, revealed its layered history.

Excavations led to the creation of a new exhibition space, with La Cisterna at its core.

Qatar Museums volunteers worked first-hand on conservation, practising restoration techniques to help preserve recovered artefacts.

Argentina_Qatar_Year_of_Culture — *This year’s Qatar Years of Culture volunteers pictured with HE Mohammed Alkuwari and Hernán Lombardi [Ibrahim Fakhri]*

Along the way, they met their Argentine counterparts, exchanging introductions and stories, as they were warmly welcomed by Buenos Aires’ Minister of Economic Development, Hernán Lombardi.

From underground explorations, the programme moved to Argentina’s open fields.

At La Irenita polo ranch, ahead of the international Polo AlMarsa exhibition matches in Doha this December, we witnessed players from Argentina and Chile in training.

Observing the hours of discipline and preparation behind the sport, far from the glamour of competition day, offered a rare perspective on a cultural tradition that links both partner nations and will soon travel to Qatar.

La Irenita polo ranch

Our visit also took us to the Museo de Arte Latinoamericano de Buenos Aires (MALBA), where we reflected on an earlier chapter of this year’s cultural dialogue.

Earlier this year, MALBA partnered with Qatar Museums to bring Latinoamericano: Modern and Contemporary Art from the Malba and Eduardo F. Costantini Collections to the National Museum of Qatar.

The landmark exhibition, which ran from April to July, presented more than 170 artworks spanning painting, film, sculpture, and popular culture, offering audiences in Doha a sweeping view of Latin America’s creative evolution.

At MALBA, walking through galleries that had inspired Latin America, we saw how that exchange had travelled full circle.

The exhibition’s curators, María Amalia García and Issa Al Shirawi, posed a question that still resonated within the museum’s walls: how do you capture the diversity of a continent through art?

Standing before works that once hung in Doha, we were reminded that cultural exchange is not a one-way journey but a conversation that continues to shape both sides of this Years of Culture.

Bridging cultures through music, art, and culinary exchange

Meanwhile, student musicians and volunteers bridged cultures at the Astor Piazzolla Conservatory, blending Qatari Ardha rhythms with local traditions to create a dialogue through music and dance.

The exchange extended into workshops with Qatari photographer Khalifa Al Obaidly and artist Khalid Bumatar, where volunteers explored creative overlaps in practice and perspective.

We also stopped by the Kalila wa Dimna Art Exhibition at the Biblioteca Ricardo Güiraldes, where 12 original artworks by Qatari artist and author Wadha Al Athba brought the classical Arabic fables to life in vivid, contemporary form.

Presented by Qatar Reads, the exhibition offered Buenos Aires audiences a colourful glimpse into storytelling traditions from the Arab world, while the Spanish-language edition of Kalila wa Dimna, illustrated by Wadha and published by HBKU Press, continues to reach young readers across Argentina.

The programme also looked outward, connecting culture to pressing questions of the day. In partnership with Qatar Foundation, a Doha Debates Town Hall at Usina del Arte explored the question: How should we reinvent the city?

Young voices from Qatar, Argentina and other international participants engaged with a mix of academic insight and grassroots urgency.

The event marked the first time Doha Debates had co-funded an initiative with an external partner, expanding its reach and emphasising the global dimension of the Years of Culture.

Culture also spilt onto the streets: a tour with BA Street Arts introduced visitors to the city’s bold visual language, where murals stretched from tributes to Diego Maradona and Lionel Messi to vivid symbols of resistance.

On the edge of town, rusty silos had been transformed into towering columns of colour, reminders of how public space is reimagined through art.

Argentina's vibrant chapter of Qatar's Years of Culture

Food, meanwhile, brought diplomacy to the table. A Gastro-Diplomacy day paired QM volunteers with chefs and apprentices from Argentina’s Chamber of Hotels, Restaurants, and Cafes.

Argentina_food — *Food being served during a Gastro-Diplomacy day* *[Ibrahim Fakhri]*

Together they prepared dishes typical of both countries, swapping recipes and techniques in a way that made the exchange tactile, communal and delicious.

After all, how often do you see the famous Qatari Machboos served with a side of authentic Chilean empanadas? This playful pairing captured the spirit of the Years of Culture as vividly as any conversation.

For many volunteers, these experiences went beyond learning skills, becoming encounters that left lasting impressions.

From Buenos Aires to Santiago

Wrapping Argentina’s chapter, the programme moved to Chile. But what the Buenos Aires wrap-up has shown is that culture — dug from the ground, played on stage, cooked in kitchens, painted on walls, or debated in public halls — is at its most potent when it is shared.

And in Buenos Aires, those shared moments linger: the clatter of cooking pots, the echo of Ardha tunes in a conservatory built for tango, the sight of colour blooming across a rusted silo.

These are the memories now carried into Chile, where the Years of Culture continues to unfold and extend further. Stay tuned this week to uncover what was seen, heard, and experienced there.

Ibrahim Fakhri is a visual artist and creative manager at The New Arab. His work focuses on visual storytelling and creative media that explore contemporary Arab narratives