Mohammed Farea at Murabba Palace: “Najd Icons”
- Claire Harkin
- Nov 26
- 2 min read
Honouring heritage through movement and light
Working with Mohammed Farea’s Najd Icons was one of the most distinctive parts of our time in the Historical Centre this year. His work draws deeply on the geometric rhythms, textures and patterns of Najdi architecture, and the installation at Murabba Palace created a striking dialogue between those traditional forms and contemporary digital expression.
A collaborative animated interpretation
Known for blending traditional Saudi architectural influences with modern techniques, Farea developed the animated concept for Najd Icons in collaboration with curator Sara Almutlaq and animator Rob Currie of Visual Edge Media. Together, they created an 11-minute piece that draws on an extensive catalogue of Najdi motifs, reinterpreting them with clarity, scale and energy for the monumental façade of Murabba Palace. Rob described the project as a particularly enjoyable one, shaped by an organic creative process that unfolded naturally between all collaborators.
The animation begins with a chalk-like rendering of Farea’s design — quiet, hand-drawn and minimal. From there, the piece gradually gathers colour and structure, slowly coming alive as forms solidify and the composition takes shape. As the work evolves, the geometry breaks apart again, scattering into individual fragments that dart, swirl and collide before reassembling into the full image.
The sequence is playful, vivid and full of movement — almost molecular in the way each element responds to the others, gaining energy through interaction before returning to its original form. Seen across the vast surface of Murabba Palace, the movement felt both expansive and intimate, echoing the vitality embedded in Najdi pattern-making.
Shaping the installation at Murabba Palace
Our role centred on coordinating the organisational and technical process to help ensure the work landed on the building exactly as intended. Murabba Palace has a very distinctive surface, and the animation’s rapid transitions and bursts of colour needed careful attention so that every moment felt anchored in the architecture rather than simply projected onto it.
As with all our work in the Historical Centre this year, we benefitted enormously from the site support of the teams at Filmmaster and MEDIAPRO, whose collaboration helped the installation settle naturally into the fabric of the building.
A celebration of Najdi heritage
Najd Icons resonates because it speaks so clearly to place — to the patterns, materials and architectural language of the region — while also embracing a contemporary sense of rhythm and play. Our contribution was simply to support the extension of that resonance into a new medium.
We are grateful to Mohammed for his openness, generosity and willingness to explore fresh interpretations of his work, and to the full creative team for the spirit of collaboration that shaped the piece from start to finish.
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