A community-led project brought thousands of people together, turning it into a powerful symbol of unity.
Dubai: Ideas often take years to develop, but some arrive fully formed—urgent and impossible to ignore. The We Love Dubai initiative was one such idea.
It began with a conversation. Marta Paniagua, Creative Director at Multilem Middle East, turned to her colleague Dorothee Anjos and said, “We cannot just sit in the office and wait for something to happen. We need to do something.”
What followed was less than two weeks of rapid creativity, community effort, and quiet determination, culminating in one of the most moving public installations Dubai has seen in recent memory.
A heart made of faces
At Kite Beach from April 5 to 12, a towering heart-shaped digital mosaic rose above the sand, its panels arranged in the colours of the UAE flag—red, white, green, and black. But what filled those panels was not design or imagery. It was people. Real faces. Thousands of residents scanned a QR code, received a sticker, and added their selfies to a living installation that grew more powerful with every new participant.
By the end of the installation, more than 10,000 entries had been submitted by residents representing over 130 nationalities. The mosaic did not simply display the UAE flag—it was built from the people who live under it.
The women behind it
Marta has been in Dubai for twenty years. She arrived newly married and full of hope, and the city shaped her in ways she could not have foreseen. “I feel deeply Spanish—that will always be part of who I am,” she says. “But today I am proud to call Dubai home. It represents my present and my future.”
Dorothee’s story is equally layered. Half German, half French, with a Portuguese husband, she has moved seventeen times in her life and raised four children in the UAE. “I don’t think I have ever felt as at home anywhere as I do here,” she says, speaking with quiet certainty.
Both women felt the same pull when tensions rose in the region—not to retreat, but to respond. To create a platform for the community to express something honest and collective: that Dubai is home, and they are grateful for it.
Built on community, not budget
What makes the initiative even more remarkable is how it came together, as an entirely non-profit project. Dubai’s creative community rallied behind the idea almost immediately, with an audiovisual company, a construction team, a print house for the stickers, a staffing agency, and a media team all contributing their time and expertise because they believed in what it represented.
The permits, which in the events industry can often take weeks or months to secure, were issued by Dubai Tourism, Dubai Municipality, and the RTA in under 48 hours.
The public response was equally overwhelming. Strangers showed up offering free donuts, ice cream, and pizza, while others queued simply to take part in something they hadn’t been asked to care about—but chose to anyway.
“We thought it was a nice idea,” Dorothee admits. “We weren’t expecting people to be so eager to join us and be part of this initiative.”
Why now
There is an emotional awareness behind the timing of We Love Dubai that both women describe clearly. Unity feels simple when times are easy, but it carries a different meaning when they are not.
“In those rainy days, literally, being united means something,” Dorothee says. “Being united when things aren’t easy, when we need to be resilient, when we are facing challenges—this is when we need to feel united. And this is what we are doing here.”
Marta expresses a similar sentiment. “At a time when there is so much noise and competing narratives, it is more important than ever to listen to the real voices of the people who live here,” she says. “Because this city is not just where we live—it becomes part of who we are.”
The installation brought together people who shared little beyond their location and their emotions. Different cultures, languages, and stories came together in one shared expression: one heart, one city.
A dream still waiting
The installation at Kite Beach may have been taken down, but Dorothee carries a larger vision forward. She dreams of seeing all those faces—10,000 and more—projected onto the Burj Khalifa, turning a city’s worth of portraits into a tribute on one of the world’s most iconic landmarks, celebrating the people who call it home.
For now, it remains a dream, as the initiative is non-profit and funding is not yet in place. But We Love Dubai has shown over the past two weeks that when this community believes in something, it finds a way to make it happen.
If you want to be part of the next chapter, the mosaic is still growing. Scan, submit, and share—add your face to the heart. As the name says, We Love Dubai.
