Street art breathes new life into Dubai neighbourhood

Artwork on 2nd December Street in Dubai, UAE. Jeffrey E Biteng / The National

DUBAI// A majestic falcon, young Emirati boys playing and geometric shapes are among the colourful new additions to one of the emirate’s most historic streets.

Artists from around the world have been involved in transforming some of the buildings along 2nd December Street in Satwa into giant canvasses in recent weeks as part of the Dubai Street Museum project.

The initiative was officially announced by Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid, UAE Vice President and Ruler of Dubai, earlier this week.

The historic street, formerly known as Al Diyafah Street but renamed in honour of National Day, is the latest area to take part in the project that will eventually see work from local and international artists displayed across the city as well as in the mountain town of Hatta.

There are currently wall murals in Jumeriah Beach Residence, Al Karama and the City Walk mall.

Fadi Dandoush, sales manager at Ramee Jewellery on 2nd December Street, welcomed the changes being made to the neighbourhood.

“The paintings and pictures are really amazing and they have already lifted the area,” he said.

“I really like the falcon that has been painted across the road. It’s really interesting to see how the artists make the pictures.”

Although already a popular location for tourists, the new artworks will encourage more people to visit the area, he said.

“The whole area is becoming a lot more colourful and it’s a much nicer environment to be in.”

Yasser Tycir, a salon worker from the area, believes residents and businesses have been given a lift by the new artwork.

“I think that it will help businesses in the area as well,” he said. “If you have more people coming to the area then I’m sure businesses will benefit.”

His friend Alaa Arfeh, manager of Millia Cosmetics, feels the artwork is giving the area a new lease of life.

“The buildings here are showing their age but the artwork has helped them to come back to life,” he said.

More than a dozen buildings will be transformed with murals.

French artist Kan DMV was putting the finishing touches to his patterned artwork on the facade of one of the buildings.

“This is the biggest artwork I’ve done and the scale of it has meant it’s taken longer than anticipated,” he said.

Inspired by the designs of traditional Emirati woven baskets, the piece features colourful circular geometric shapes.

“It’s taken about 10 days to get to this stage but I should be done today, I think,” he said. “I was contacted by the organisers who wanted a homage to Emirati culture and I felt this was a good way of showing that.”

Prior to this, the largest piece he had worked on was 8x4 metres.

“This is much bigger. I had to initially use a stencil to mark out a series of uniform dots across the entire faced and since then I’ve used spray cans to draw out the larger circular dots.

“The last bit of the work will be adding the sand coloured final addition but that shouldn’t take as long. I usually start work at around 8am and probably finish at 1am so it’s a long day,” he said.

“It’s been a really interesting experience for me as well because on the first day we had a few students from one of the schools visit and they were very interested in the whole process of how I worked.”