Photo: Bojan Mustur
There are so many of them. And they are all heroes. Of the street, city, childhood. Mine, yours. They build towers, connect people. Nations. And that language, we all speak it. It’s not Babylonian.
Photo: Bojan Mustur
They are beautiful, warm human beings. Building colossal structures. Gigantic statues made by Greek sculptor Charles of Lindos, born on the island of Rhodes. Just in Doha. That’s not just a gigantic statue. It’s a symbol of unity. That’s how they build Doha. Like Jean Nouvel builds his Desert Rose (National Museum of Qatar, desert rose). With their own hands. Moving Doha into another dimension, preparing it for wonders. World wonders. How many? Seven? Probably many, many more. Architects are competing. Ideas, sketches, drawings one over another at the tables we don’t see. With big masters’ signatures. I.M. Pei, Jean Nouvel, Rem Koolhas, Zaha Hadid. That’s how Doha is becoming one huge exhibition. Decorative. Like the one from Paris, from the second decade of the past century. That city is bathed in light. Natural. And everything smells of Art Deco.
Photo: Bojan Mustur
Faces of the workers remind of a photograph “Lunch atop a Skyscraper” (New York Construction Workers Lunching on a Crossbeam) by Charles Clyde Ebbets. Because Doha is full of skyscrapers. Eleven workers sit on the steel girder, eating their lunch. They say it was taken on the 20th of September 1932 at the 69th floor of the Rockefeller Center, Manhattan, New York City. At the height of 260 meters. That same day, a little bit later, maestro took a photograph of the workers playing golf. Man and a woman with the swords in their hands, symbolizing a duel, on the height that makes your heart skip a beat. Like Robin Hood and Little John. Then, his place in history deserved a worked with a camera too. Actually, there are few such photographs made by the same author. Each of them is a masterpiece. Like the one showing famous Margaret Bourke-White at the top of the Chrysler Building. Peaking behind the grotesque eagle’s head, with the camera in her hand, taking a photo of the New York City skyline. Just like Oskar Graubner’s work from 1935. And then again photographs of Charles Clyde Ebbets. Workers playing the mouth organs. Eleven of them, like a football team, New York Cosmos. Oh, acrobats were there too. Jugglers and clowns. Didn’t we laugh at Laurel and Hardy in the movie Liberty from 1929? And their sketches at the steel structures of the future skyscrapers.
Photo: Bojan Mustur
One of the most impressive photographs is the one with two workers and two waiters who carefully hold ready lunch. With bow ties, in black suits. But they are not Men in Black. Actually, like some De Lempicka’s oil on canvass, heavily influenced by cubism. Like Prince Eristoff’s portrait. To hand on the walls of some fancy salon. Or a Holywood villa, an aristocratic one.
Photo: Bojan Mustur
Workers of Doha come from different places. They conquer sky heights. Just like their photographer. Days of pride and glory. They speak the same language. Their veins are fighting against nature. And physics. The laws of the Universe. And in the background, the face of Steven Hawking with a smile. And he says, it’s all possible! Just believe in it. Sweat drops on the wrinkled forehead. Somewhere, in the depths of their eyes, they long for home. Wife waiting at the doorstep. And hanging on her skirt, like in the scene from the film The Tin Drum by Volker Schlöndorff, the face of their shy daughter. Suckling on her finger. She’s happy, although she doesn’t recognize you. But she knows your smell. And she knows your fame.
Photo: Bojan Mustur
The Sun is burning heavily now. Sometimes, there are also sandstorms. Maybe it will bring a smile on your face. It’s avant-garde. Like the story. But there’s no fear of height. Like walking on the string, artist Philippe Petit. And binding the worlds together.
Because, as Irving Stone said – the lust for life is strong
