SOME might call it giant graffiti, others prefer street art, but in truth an Aberdeen office building has gained a thing of beauty with a huge and very striking mural painted as part of the Nuart Festival 2018.
One of the Granite City’s most prominent Grade A office buildings has been given a makeover by a world renowned artist as part of this year’s Festival, and the result can be seen for considerable distances.
The building, owned by LGIM Real Assets (Legal and General), is Union Plaza, which is home to corporate occupiers including Burness Paull and Aberdeen Standard Investments. It was selected as a key site in this year’s festival which has its roots in the NuArt Festival that originated in Norway in 2003.
The installation at the city centre office building has been created by Lithuanian-born Ernest Zacharevic, best known for carving a giant SOS message into an Indonesian palm oil plantation to draw attention to the damage done by deforestation earlier this year.
Taking over the entire east side of Union Plaza, the installation spans over the 120,000 sq ft building’s seven open plan floors and features a young boy climbing brickwork, overseen from above by seagulls.
The theme for this year’s festival revolves around the concept A Revolution of the Ordinary, investigating the parallel world of non-institutional art and culture through a program of talks and debates, film screenings, walking tours and workshops.
Nuart was started in 2003 in Stavanger, Norway, and Aberdeen fought off competition from cities around the world to host the first NuArt festival outside Norway last year.
The 2018 festival was launched earlier this month, and showcases new work from 11 international street artists.
Legal and General stated: “Managed by property consultants JLL, Union Plaza is also home to Deloitte, AGR, Exxon Mobil, and Barclays. Its owners, Legal and General, chose to engage Aberdeen’s corporate community with the festival in order to tap into the strong international spotlight the festival is likely to bring to the city.
Mark Russell, senior fund manager at LGIM Real Assets, said: “It’s been fantastic to have the support and engagement of the building’s occupiers, particularly Aberdeen Standard Investments and Burness Paull who are headline sponsors of the festival.
“Ernest’s installation is incredibly striking and we hope visitors and occupiers engage with and discuss his piece. Aberdeen is a fantastic place to live and work, and it is with great pride that we welcome the Nuart festival to the city and our building, illustrating how culturally open and dynamic Aberdeen truly is.”
Bryony Spencer of JLL, who manage the building, said: “It’s been very exciting to work with Nuart Festival this year and see the artwork come to life. We hope this shows off a different side to corporate Aberdeen, and encourages the public to engage with the artwork and see the city in a new light.”
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