
#2 – 2.0
Guest Workers presents four projects that address the situation in Qatar, where hundreds of thousands of migrant workers worked almost 12 years under deplorable and dangerous conditions to build stadiums, hotels and infrastructure for the 2022 FIFA World Cup football tournament.
Textile designer Sia Hurtigkarl Degel shows hand-woven rugs from her collection World Cup Rugs 2.0. The rugs were made in Nepal, the country of origin of many of the migrant workers on Qatar’s construction sites. Today, Nepal’s considerable textile export is surpassed by its export of cheap labour.
Under the title Nation Building, photographer Jonathan Lieb shows portraits of migrant workers.
Using the format of collectible football cards, Cards of Qatar by Blankspot tells the stories of the families the migrant workers left behind in their homelands.
The exhibition also includes an extract from the documentary The Workers Cup, which depicts the everyday life of the migrant workers who built the World Cup facilities in Qatar.