Sultan AlNeyadi mural

In Al Ain, Emirati artist Saggaf brought the UAE’s space programme into a public mural honouring Sultan AlNeyadi. Produced by SAN Projects for the Mohammed Bin Rashid Space Centre in October 2023, the commission connects a contemporary achievement with the country’s founding history.

AlNeyadi’s portrait appears alongside a constellation-inspired image of Sheikh Zayed. The composition links the astronaut’s six-month mission aboard the International Space Station and his achievement as the first Arab to perform a spacewalk with a longer national narrative of ambition and discovery.

SAN Projects managed the commission from concept to delivery, including design development, artist and assistant coordination, materials, surface preparation and on-site production. Saggaf’s imagery was translated into a work at architectural scale, with the practical stages organised around the artist’s composition and the setting.

The mural makes a subject associated with distant space visible within an everyday environment in Al Ain. Portraiture, astronomy and national memory are brought together in a work intended to be read from the street.