introduction

The mosaic, which measures 1,015 square metres – around the size of two basketball courts – took one month to assemble and contains almost 90,500 recycled items, including plastic bottles, cans and cardboard. The local community participated in the project, including Masdar City employees, tenants and local residents, along with members of the wider Abu Dhabi community and school children.

The aim of the mosaic, which was officially unveiled ahead of Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week 2020, is to encourage UAE citizens, residents and visitors to take more responsibility for their impact on the environment and inspire them to reduce, reuse and recycle their waste. The artwork shows the evolution of the UAE, from its origins through to today and looking to the future, and it features key landmarks from all seven emirates.

Representatives from Guinness World Records presented Masdar City with the official record certificate in a special ceremony today at the city, attended by Masdar City executives and UAE government officials. 

“As a pioneer in sustainable urban community development, Masdar City will continue to lead in promoting best practice in waste management,” said Yousef Baselaib, Executive Director, Sustainable Real Estate, Masdar. “This wonderful mosaic makes the sustainability debate more tangible and accessible through the universal medium of art, and demonstrates the commitment of the people of the UAE to protecting the environment. Sustainability requires everyone to play their part and engaging the local community is an essential element of Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week.”

Scope of Work

• 3x days of photography, videography + drone documentary
• built-up, community event
• media event with the announcement of the Guinness World Record

Challenges

My team and I documented this Guinness World Record created by Masdar. As an artist You really need a great sense for scale and a concept in place which materials are going to be used for what part of the artwork. Huge respect for everyone involved.

The artwork was huge and the only way to see its content well You ultimately needed significant elevation. A large ladder would not do a good job here. Only solutions are a cherry picker or preferably a drone.

Masdar City is located right next to Abu Dhabi Airport and is a No-Fly Zone and only commercially registered pilots can get special permits to operate their drone in such a zone. A maximum operational height limit of 30m was set by the governing body.

The real challenge was that the artwork did not fit completely in the drone camera’s frame for a top angle at 30m. In order to get that right 2x high res images had to be stitched together which is a rather unusual activity in the air.

Great day out!