KUWAIT CITY, KUWAIT Foreign Architecture / Domestic Policy

Kuwait owns and manages approximately five thousand gas stations across Europe. Under the not-so subtle company name ‘Q8’, these stations began as an investment to secure a market for the country’s oil export, but their role continued to grow as they became a key player in funding and lobbying against the occupation of Kuwait prior to the Gulf War. Q8 is not simply a series of serving stations across the European landscape, but a road map for the nation’s political and economic autonomy.
For a country of less than a million people in 1973, which was exporting 10% of the world’s oil, the narrative of the state is inextricably tied to the projections of wealth and identity outwards. The creation of Q8 was a way to build, demand, and secure a market for Kuwaiti oil by selling directly to the European driver. Since gasoline is a product one never deals with directly, the customer does not choose one source of gasoline over another, but the brand of gas station. The adoption of Q8 as a brand provided the perfect balance of corporate neutrality and nationalistic projection, a way of selling Kuwait without risking hostility or suspicion in light of a post-OPEC crisis world.
This exhibition tells the story of the stations that act as embassies across Europe and their role in branding Kuwait abroad in the years to come.