In a meaningful step toward enriching the public cultural experience, the Dubai Culture & Arts Authority and Alserkal Arts Foundation have joined forces to bring transformative art into the heart of the UAE. Through the Dubai Public Art initiative, three new public art projects will unfold across distinct locations: Al Quoz Creative Zone, Shindagha Historic District, and Leem Lake in Hatta. Each site invites viewers to experience art outside the confines of traditional galleries, immersed instead in the city’s evolving natural and historical fabric.
At Leem Lake in Hatta, a particularly stirring installation has emerged, shaped by the creative collaboration of artist Shaikha Al Mazrou (Instagram) and curator Faysal Tabbarah (Instagram). Inspired by the raw beauty of the Hajar Mountains, the duo created a series of five minimalist sculptures that serve as quiet interventions along a mountain hiking trail. Embedded directly into the earth, Al Mazrou’s vivid red discs, some vertical, others laid flat, engage in a delicate dialogue with the terrain. These elemental forms are at once subtle and bold, shifting depending on light, position, and the observer’s movement.
Each disc offers more than visual intrigue. They are invitations, to pause, to shift one’s gaze, to connect with what lies beneath the surface of the land. The artworks become portals through which visitors can immerse themselves in the rhythm of the mountains, prompting reflection not just on the landscape, but on its overlooked stories and echoes. They urge a reconsideration of cultural memory and invite curiosity about Hatta’s layered natural heritage and the transformations it continues to undergo.
“In the Mountain of Hatta, I pause deliberately, not to find answers, but to question the need for them,” Al Mazrou reflects. “Like the spiral, it’s not about moving forward or backward, but about recognizing the quiet moments in between.” This sense of stillness, of being present and aware, is what threads the experience together. The works do not seek to overwhelm; they aim to gently reveal.
For curator Faysal Tabbarah, the project is rooted in amplifying stories that belong to the place. “Public art amplifies a sense of place and can enable people to understand their environments in ways that are often too subtle to notice without reflection,” he explains. Together with Al Mazrou and Alserkal Arts Foundation, he shaped a trail that makes wonder and connection tangible.
Al Mazrou’s practice, grounded in material experimentation and sculptural precision, lends itself perfectly to such a setting. Known for minimalist installations that play with structure, balance, and space, her work bridges the conceptual with the physical, drawing viewers into an experience of perception. Tabbarah’s architectural and academic lens further enriches the piece, aligning environmental sensitivity with cultural narrative.
As Dubai continues to redefine what public engagement with art can look like, this project in Hatta sets a compelling example. In five quiet moments, scattered across a mountain path, a conversation begins, between people, place, and time. And sometimes, in the stillness, it’s the landscape itself that speaks.
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