Damien Hirst and Miuccia Prada’s Doha desert juice bar

A Bedouin tent in the desert, at night. The tent is set out as the Pharmacy Juice Bar.
Located within a nearby Bedouin tent, the ‘Prada Oasis and Damien Hirst’s Pharmacy Juice Bar’ came decked out as a drug store, acting as a reinterpretation of the artist’s late 1990s ‘Pharmacy Restaurant’
(Image credit: TBC)
By Katrina Israel
last updated

To celebrate the arrival of Damien Hirst’s ‘Relics’ retrospective (opens in new tab) to Doha’s Al Riwaq Exhibition Space, the British artist teamed up with Miuccia Prada to create an unexpected desert mirage in the form of a pop-up juice bar in Qatar last week.

Located within a nearby Bedouin tent, the ‘Prada Oasis and Damien Hirst’s Pharmacy Juice Bar’ came decked out as a drug store, acting as a reinterpretation of the artist’s late 1990s ‘Pharmacy Restaurant’, and accompanied a nearby Prada boutique, similarly housed within a traditional tent made from sheep hair.

Hirst and Prada first met in 1996 at the ‘Art/Fashion’ exhibition, curated by Germano Celant and Ingrid Sischy in Forte Belvedere, Florence. And although former Prada art extensions such as Elmgreen & Dragset’s ‘Prada Marfa’ store (opens in new tab) installation in Marfa, Texas were not in fact shoppable, for this project Mrs Prada crafted 20 limited edition ‘Entomology’ Plexiglas bags, encasing bejewelled beetles.

As the Qatar Museum Authority’s director of public art, Jean Paul Engelen explained, the project ‘sought to create an out-of-the-ordinary place which, for just two days, provided a totally unique experience in the Arab landscape’.

The collaboration between Mrs Prada, Damien Hirst, and Sheikha Al Mayassa bint Hamad Al-Thani, chair of the QMA, saw the proceeds from the sale of the bespoke bags dedicated to the Sheikha’s Reach Out To Asia non-profit organisation (opens in new tab) that aims to improve youth access to education in Asia and the Middle East. 

A black Bedouin tent in the desert, at daylight. The tent is set out as a Prada store.

The pop-up juice bar accompanied a nearby Prada store, similarly housed within a traditional tent made from sheep hair

(Image credit: TBC)

The photo on the left shows an illustration of a Prada bag, with different beetles on it. The photo on the right shows a real version of the bag in green color.

From the left: An exclusive illustration of one of the 20 limited-edition Prada ‘Entomology’ Plexiglas bags that encased bejewelled beetles

(Image credit: TBC)

The photo shows the inside of the Prada store tent. Black and white tiles are set on the floor with a satin green sofa in the corner.

Inside the Prada store tent, featuring the house's signature black and white chequered floor (this time fashioned in carpet) and green velvet hung mirrors

(Image credit: TBC)

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The exhibition is located at Al Riwaq Doha Exhibition Space (opens in new tab), on Al Corniche, next to the Museum of Islamic Art

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Damien Hirst Prada
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