Case study · Multi-artist mural programme

Aldar
Murals

Yas Island
Abu Dhabi, UAE

Completed
February 2022

The commission

Six façades.
Six distinct voices.

Gallery Dod coordinated six individual artists to create a family of large-scale murals across six Aldar buildings on Yas Island. Each artist brought a different visual language; the production had to give every work its own presence while holding the complete site together.

Across otherwise standard façade surfaces, the six works required a mixed material specification. The remit covered feasibility, design consultation, condition reporting, surface and material planning, programming, access, site safety, artist and crew coordination, execution and handover. Approximately two assistants supported each commissioned artist.

Client: Aldar
Delivery partner: XLer8 AD
Format: Six-artist façade programme

06buildings and mural façades

936 m²approximate total painted area

26 mheight of each mural surface

~18artists and artist assistants coordinated

The completed collection

One site.
Six visual languages.

No two façades were treated as a variation of the same idea. The programme preserved the individual character of each artist while giving the architecture a shared sense of ambition and scale.

Maddy Butcher’s completed purple and orange abstract mural rising across an Aldar building at night — 01 Maddy Butcher · façade 01

Rabab Tantawy’s completed blue, orange and pink figurative mural across a full Aldar building facade — 02 Rabab Tantawy · façade 02

Tarsila Schubert’s completed organic red, orange and yellow mural in its architectural setting — 03 Tarsila Schubert · façade 03

Dozi Dreams’ completed circular blue, yellow and purple mural at dusk — 04 Dozi Dreams · façade 04

Fink.22’s completed mural of three colourful faces across a full-height Aldar facade — 05 Fink.22 · façade 05

George Rollo’s completed geometric mural with the specialist crew working from a suspended cradle — 06 George Rollo · façade 06

The production challenge

Six parallel
workstreams.

The defining complexity was coordination. Six artists, approximately twelve assistants, separate material needs and six active façades had to move through one controlled production programme.

Gallery Dod connected the creative, technical and operational decisions so individual artistic approaches could progress without the site losing clarity, pace or control.

Three Aldar buildings at different stages of the coordinated mural programme — 07 Three active façades · one programme

Two mural teams working in parallel across neighbouring Aldar buildings — 08 Parallel delivery · artist coordination

Artworks across architecture

Different by design.
Consistent in delivery.

The programme moved between distinct palettes, mark-making and material requirements. Consistency came from the planning behind the work: common standards for access, safety, surfaces, scheduling and handover.

Across the siteTwo façades · one delivery standard

Commissioned artist executing a precise detail from a suspended cradle — 09 Artist execution · façade detail

Suspended access

At height,
the plan is the platform.

Each 6-by-26-metre surface was delivered from suspended access. Equipment planning, daily sequencing, surface preparation, materials and crew movement were managed as part of the creative programme, not around it.