Noor Riyadh: What is that big star installation hanging over Saudi Arabia's Kingdom Tower right now?

An enormous, nearly five-tonne, eight-point star has been suspended from Riyadh’s renowned Kingdom Tower, the 300-metre-tall building that dominates the city’s landscape.

Hanging 256 metres high in the sky, Star in Motion lights up on the hour in a dramatic display of light. The work's artist, Koert Vermeulen, says it simulates the birth and extinction of a star, condensed into a one-minute display.

The installation is part of the city's Noor Riyadh festival, a vast, multi-venue exhibition that is devoted to the artistic play with light, which runs until April 3. The event has brought in major international artists, such as Daniel Buren, Yayoi Kusama and Dan Flavin, as well as some 20 artists from Saudi Arabia's burgeoning art scene.

To see images from the Noor Riyadh festival, take a look through the gallery below:

Vermeulen got his start designing light shows for electronic music DJs in the 1990s. With a 22-person studio in Brussels, he now straddles the worlds of commercial lighting design and art, making displays for major events as well as creative projects.

Artist Koert Vermeulen got his start designing light shows for the techno scene of the 1990s. Courtesy Riyadh Art 2021

This is his third work in Saudi Arabia; last year, he created the performance Leila: The Land of Imagination, via the use of light.

For this new project, he says: "The title of the show is Under One Sky, and I immediately knew that the light festival needed to have a star in the sky – and in the middle of the most iconic building.

"I've made a sun and a moon for other projects, so it made sense for me to make a star now. The sun [I made] is in India, the moon is in Belgium and the star is here.”

Far from being a static object overlooking the city, the star shimmers and glows, with reflective surfaces and moving light patterns. As well as its explosive birth and rebirth on the hour – like a rather more dramatic Big Ben – more subtle light effects occur every 15 minutes to emphasise how stars are actively changing in the sky.

The sun I made is in India, the moon is in Belgium and the star is here in Saudi Arabia

“I wanted people to have the patience to wait and watch it for a little while longer, to see how things change,” Vermeulen explains. “It becomes like a clock for the city.”

It was also a logistical feat. Vermeulen originally planned to make it nine metres across, but engineers warned him that a structure of that size would be too heavy to withstand the 160-kilometre-per-hour winds that can race through the desert city.

He and his team scaled it down to six metres, a size that still requires cables 80 millimetres in diameter – about the size of an upper arm – to hold it in place.

The star was produced in Belgium, and then dismantled and flown to Saudi Arabia. Its 317 parts were brought up the Kingdom Tower in a lift, and then carried by hand up the remaining two floors to a platform that had been constructed at the base of the tower's U-shaped void.

There, more than 200 metres above the city, the star was put back together. It was then winched up via rigging, and affixed to cables attached to the tower's sky bridge and other points in the gap.

The process was enough to impress even the lighting design veteran.

“Being more than 25 years in the entertainment industry, and seeing all those things that have been done before, I've never seen rigging like this,” he says. “Even performances for the Rolling Stones didn’t use that kind of rigging. I saw rigging elements that you only see in the shipping industry.”

The star is visible across Riyadh. In the day it resembles a necklace, hanging prettily down in the centre of the tower. At night, it becomes a dramatic feature of the city. The work will be up for the 17 days of the festival, and then dismantled and brought back down to Earth.

Noor Riyadh runs until Saturday, April 3.

More information is available at www.noorriyadh.sa

Ten tax points to be aware of in 2026

1. Domestic VAT refund amendments: request your refund within five years

If a business does not apply for the refund on time, they lose their credit.

2. E-invoicing in the UAE

Businesses should continue preparing for the implementation of e-invoicing in the UAE, with 2026 a preparation and transition period ahead of phased mandatory adoption.

3. More tax audits

Tax authorities are increasingly using data already available across multiple filings to identify audit risks.

4. More beneficial VAT and excise tax penalty regime

Tax disputes are expected to become more frequent and more structured, with clearer administrative objection and appeal processes. The UAE has adopted a new penalty regime for VAT and excise disputes, which now mirrors the penalty regime for corporate tax.

5. Greater emphasis on statutory audit

There is a greater need for the accuracy of financial statements. The International Financial Reporting Standards standards need to be strictly adhered to and, as a result, the quality of the audits will need to increase.

6. Further transfer pricing enforcement

Transfer pricing enforcement, which refers to the practice of establishing prices for internal transactions between related entities, is expected to broaden in scope. The UAE will shortly open the possibility to negotiate advance pricing agreements, or essentially rulings for transfer pricing purposes.

7. Limited time periods for audits

Recent amendments also introduce a default five-year limitation period for tax audits and assessments, subject to specific statutory exceptions. While the standard audit and assessment period is five years, this may be extended to up to 15 years in cases involving fraud or tax evasion.

8. Pillar 2 implementation

Many multinational groups will begin to feel the practical effect of the Domestic Minimum Top-Up Tax (DMTT), the UAE's implementation of the OECD’s global minimum tax under Pillar 2. While the rules apply for financial years starting on or after January 1, 2025, it is 2026 that marks the transition to an operational phase.

9. Reduced compliance obligations for imported goods and services

Businesses that apply the reverse-charge mechanism for VAT purposes in the UAE may benefit from reduced compliance obligations.

10. Substance and CbC reporting focus

Tax authorities are expected to continue strengthening the enforcement of economic substance and Country-by-Country (CbC) reporting frameworks. In the UAE, these regimes are increasingly being used as risk-assessment tools, providing tax authorities with a comprehensive view of multinational groups’ global footprints and enabling them to assess whether profits are aligned with real economic activity.

Contributed by Thomas Vanhee and Hend Rashwan, Aurifer

The Brutalist

Director: Brady Corbet

Stars: Adrien Brody, Felicity Jones, Guy Pearce, Joe Alwyn

Rating: 3.5/5

Race card

5pm: Maiden (PA) Dh80,000 (Turf) 1,600m
5.30pm: Handicap (PA) Dh80,000 (T) 1,600m
6pm: Arabian Triple Crown Round-1 Listed (PA) Dh230,000 (T) 1,600m
6.30pm: Wathba Stallions Cup Handicap (PA) Dh70,000 (T) 1,400m
7pm: Maiden (PA) Dh80,000 (T) 1,200m
7.30pm: Handicap (TB) Dh100,000 (T) 2,400m