Saudi Arabia has commissioned Spanish artist Domingo Zapata to paint the world’s largest mural, which will be about 540,000 square feet, the size of nine football fields.
The mural, which Zapata said will be Saudi Arabia’s version of the Sistine Chapel, will feature hieroglyphic images chronicling the history of art and the Saudi Kingdom’s art tradition and heritage.
The six-year project, now two years in its making, has Zapata working with a team of roughly 100 artists, engineers, and architects.
The mural will be in a park located on a huge avenue in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, where universities, technology, and research centres will be located.
Speaking to Artnet, the artist said his reference to the mural as another version of the Sistine Chapel is not to equate himself with Michelangelo, but rather to recall a time in history when artists were entrusted with complete creative freedom to interpret humanity as it was understood at the time.
“The opportunity to contribute to a project of this scale, and to create something that may endure beyond our time, is what truly excites me. It’s the chance to build without limits, and to aim for something timeless,” he said.
The project is supported by Saudi Arabia’s controversial monarch, Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud, who has championed investing in the nation’s cultural infrastructure as part of his $2 trillion Vision 2030 initiative.
Although the nation has begun cutting back on cultural spending, Zapata is not concerned about funding, saying, “I don’t do it for the money”, while admitting to Page Six that he had a ‘blank check’ for the project.
Zapata has worked on several large-scale projects before, including a 35 x 15-foot mural at Wynwood Walls in Miami (2010) and a 15-story, 300-foot-tall vinyl mural on the façade of New York’s One Times Square Building in 2019.
