The Cosmoscow Collectors Club attended the inaugural Art Basel Qatar

In early February, the Collectors Club embarked on an art tour to Art Basel Qatar, the brand's debut fair in the Persian Gulf. The four-day trip included a comprehensive program, from a fair preview with leading art expert Daria Kirsanova and a VIP representative of the fair to visits to national museums and ethnographic villages.

Margarita Pushkina, founder and director of Cosmoscow: "Qatar is steadily moving towards the formation of a full-fledged contemporary art market. The acquisition of the Art Basel brand is part of a large scale government strategy: the authorities see Doha as an art hub in the Middle East, able to unite the international art community around itself. 

It was decided to build the first edition of the fair on big names. Wael Shawki, an Egyptian artist with a huge influence in the region, was chosen as the curator. His figure worked as a magnet for a professional audience, and judging by the reviews, the public and collectors accepted this choice with great enthusiasm. 

Visually, the fair turned out to be chamber-like and very focused: there are 87 galleries in total (for comparison, there are more than 200 in the European versions of Art Basel). At the same time, the organizers deliberately set a condition: each participant represents only one artist. Thanks to this, the fair looked solid and organized — the audience had the opportunity to deeply immerse themselves in the context of each author. At the same time, monostends as a format are also found at other international fairs — gallery owners appreciate them for the opportunity to reveal the author more deeply. By the way, there were 18 such projects at Cosmoscow 2025. 

The main customer at the Doha fair was the state: the Government of Qatar allocates impressive budgets to replenish the collections of national institutions. The gallery owners understood this perfectly well and brought the works with an eye to the museum level. Perhaps that's why Art Basel Qatar looked like a high—class exhibition in places - serious objects and even installations worthy of the world's main venues could be seen here. Interestingly, local artists were included in the context of the world stars of the museum scale. The stands looked very decent — the public once again saw famous international galleries and art dealers in a new setting."

If you are interested in learning more about the Collectors Club and upcoming trips, as well as to clarify the terms of participation, please send your request to artcollectors@cosmoscow.com