Dubai: It’s official: the world’s longest graffiti scroll can now be found at Jumeirah Beach in Dubai, depicting the rich and colourful journey of the UAE into nationhood and beyond.
The Guinness World Record on Sunday night officially announced that Dubai broke the world record with its graffiti scroll measuring 2,245.40 metres in length. More than 150 graffiti artists or “writers” from around the world took part using at least 7,000 spray paint cans.
The graffiti scroll – almost three times the height of Burj Khalifa – was sprawled on sand to resemble the UAE map. The move was made under the directive of Shaikh Hamdan Bin Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai and Chairman of Dubai Executive Council, as part of the celebration of the 43rd UAE National Day.
“Now, the Higher Committee has decided to leave this as an open museum for one week until Saturday from 10am to 5pm so residents can come and enjoy the artworks,” Hassan Al Mazroui, Events Director, told Gulf News after the world record announcement.
“Initially, we were worried because it was so difficult to make sure that we would beat the previous record. Even if you are sure that you followed every detail of the Guinness World Record requirements, you can never tell if we would make it or not. It was not an easy task,” he added.
It took more than one hour to measure the whole scroll at more than 2km. But for Guinness World Record adjudicator Praveen Patel, the task was worth the while.
“I saw the history of UAE and I know from the air it looks like the map of the UAE. Because the art is so brilliant, it was a wonderful journey,” Patel told Gulf News. “It was an absolutely fantastic effort by a multi-national team of graffiti artists. And to put them together to produce a single piece, that’s phenomenal. I haven’t seen any record like this.”
