Sticking up from the pavement in the Souq Waqif marketplace, this shiny bronze thumb is one of Doha’s most unusual art installations.
Le Pouce or The Thumb is a curious art installation by César Baldaccini in Doha’s Souq Waqif. The sculpture is a scaled-up model of the artist’s own thumb, with ridges and furrows of the thumbprint, wrinkles, a reflective nail and a slightly imperfect cuticle giving it a very true-to-life appearance. Make a passing visit to Le Pouce as you walk through the souk or stop at a nearby café for an alfresco meal and a longer opportunity to study the gleaming statue.
Beginning in 1965, the French artist César Baldaccini created many of these thumb sculptures in varying sizes. They are located around the world. Paris has one of the largest at 40 feet (12 meters) tall. Note that Qatar’s Le Pouce was installed in 2019 to celebrate the nation’s soccer victory in the Asian Cup.
See some of Doha’s more than 50 other large public art installations scattered around town and into the desert. Find the Pearl Monument along the Corniche, the giant Maman spider inside the Qatar National Convention Centre, a giant horse in Pearl-Qatar and a large oryx along the Corniche. Fourteen giant bronze sculptures of fetuses and a baby boy make up The Miraculous Journey near Sidra Medicine.
Wander around the airport to see a giant yellow teddy bear with its head in a lamp, the Flying Man on a tall pedestal and the plant-like Arctic Nurseries of El Dorado. Richard Serra’s 7 stands at the end of the Corniche. His East-West/West-East art installation is 90 minutes away in Zekreet. The entire building of the National Museum of Qatar is symbolic, created in the shape of a desert rose crystal. Art is everywhere in Qatar.
Find Le Pouce art installation by César Baldaccini in the southern part of Doha’s Souq Waqif near a police station. Travel to this part of the city by car in about 20 minutes or by bus in 50 minutes to an hour from Hamad International Airport.
If you’re shopping with others in the souq, use The Thumb as an easily remembered place to meet after going in separate directions.
