DUBAI: The Middle East’s first three-dimensional pavement art festival, starring works by international artists that appear to rise from the ground, kicked off this week in Dubai, its organizers said.

The Dubai Canvas Festival features 3-D artworks in chalk or paint, many of them depicting eye-catching images of the Emirati city.

Kurt Wenner, creator of the 3-D pavement painting technique, said the setting of Dubai provided a “wonderful” chance to incorporate art into the city’s ever-expanding landscape.

“What happened in Dubai as far as I can tell is that the concentration of vision has been architectural and I think they’re still working on how they’re going to be incorporating the visual arts,” he told AFP.

Noora Al-Abbar, director of communications and innovation at the government of Dubai, said the festival was part of a wider initiative to transform the city into “an open air art museum.”

One of the festival pieces, a chalk drawing by Wenner, shows a boy aboard a traditional Emirati fishing boat surrounded by children carrying baskets of pearls and shells. Dubai’s landmark high-rise skyscrapers are seen in the background. Syrian visitor Omar Adi said the festival was “a huge opportunity for artists to showcase their talents and it is a new form of 3-D art that we haven’t been used to in the Middle East.”

Dubai, famous for its glitzy buildings, is home to Burj Khalifa, the world’s tallest tower, as well as Dubai Mall, one of the largest shopping centers on Earth.

But the city has recently been investing in cultural projects, with plans afoot to build an opera house and a modern art museum.

Later this month it will hold the ninth edition of Art Dubai, billed as the leading contemporary art fair in the Middle East and North Africa.

In order to increase awareness about the global event, Brand Dubai launched a photography competition on Instagram for Dubai Canvas’ visitors. The competition’s theme is ‘Shoot – Post – Win.’

The competition aims to encourage Instagram subscribers to take photos in the festival and post them on Instagram using the hash tag (#DubaiCanvas).

According to the competition’s terms and conditions, submission ends by final day of the festival, March 7, all photos must be taken with a mobile phone and no photo editing applied.

A dedicated jury committee will evaluate the entries and choose three winners based on quality, creativity and 3D representation. The first winner will receive Dh20,000, the second winner will receive Dh15,000 and the money prize for the third winner will be Dh10,000.