There is a particular kind of artist who doesn’t just respond to a city, but grows with it. Charlotte de Belle is one of them. French-born and Dubai-based since 2007, the light artist has watched this city transform from a construction site of ambitions into one of the world’s most exciting creative capitals – and her work has evolved in step with it.
Her latest installation, created in collaboration with IQOS to mark the regional launch of its Electric Purple device, is perhaps her most visceral to date.
The concept begins with a deceptively simple idea: that curiosity is the starting point of discovery. From there, de Belle builds an entire world. Visitors enter what she describes as a cosmic void – a shifting environment of light, texture and motion that changes with every step. A single purple line cuts through the darkness, offering direction without dictating the journey. The effect is disorienting in the best possible way.
De Belle has always worked with light as her primary material, but this installation pushes the boundaries of what that means. It is less about illumination and more about revelation – the way a new perspective can emerge simply by moving through a space differently. In a city that has built its identity on looking forward, the resonance feels entirely intentional.
For IQOS, whose Electric Purple device anchors the activation, the partnership is part of a longer commitment to the UAE’s creative community. The brand has previously collaborated with Dubai-based artist Kris Balerite and Saudi calligraffiti artist Ahmed Al-Sulaimani, among others. But de Belle’s practice – large-scale, immersive, rooted in the experience of the body moving through space – feels like a natural match for a brand focused on sensory engagement.
De Belle has shown at Art Dubai and the Bluewaters Art Festival, and is a familiar presence at Dubai Design Week. She is, in other words, not an artist brought in from elsewhere to lend cultural credibility. She is part of the fabric of this city’s creative scene, which is precisely what makes this collaboration feel earned rather than manufactured.
The result is a piece that works on multiple levels: as art, as brand experience, and as a small portrait of what Dubai has become.
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The IQOS Electric Purple installation is showing in Dubai now.
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