Across 1,644 m² of the Beach Club façade, black-and-white lines will sweep, turn and gather into Rostarr’s largest work to date. Evolving Landscapes will carry the energy of handwriting across an entire building: immediate from afar, intimate at close range.

The work will continue a conversation that began in 2009, when Rostarr painted Potato Head’s Green Bus. Seventeen years later, his freehand language of Graphysics will hold a new set of impressions from Bali. Barong, dancers, crowds, music and familiar Potato Head characters will surface within the composition, each mark part of a wider story.

On 16 October, those stories will move beyond the façade and into every part of the Desa. At Desa Dialogues, Rostarr and Daniel Mitchell will revisit the relationship that began with the Green Bus and open the process, references and experiences held inside Evolving Landscapes. The conversation will flow into an opening ceremony led by Bumi Bajra, Putu Septa and Nata Swara, drawing the gathering from the lobby towards the water through live gamelan, movement and portable light.

The mural will hold the day together as the Beach Club becomes an open-air dancefloor. Archie, Ryosuke Fukunaga, Yuka Mizuhara, Eric Duncan, Alex From Tokyo and Suze Ijó will play across the afternoon and into the night from Rostarr’s hand-painted DJ booth. After sunset, projection mapping will catch the full sweep of the façade, releasing its black-and-white lines into light, motion and sound.

Later, the energy will move inside Klymax, where Gero, a back-to-back set from Benedek and Yuka Mizuhara, and Timothy Really Lab. will carry the programme through to 4am. Across a single day, the work will be spoken about, performed, illuminated, worn and danced beneath.

Explore Evolving Landscapes

Every section of the mural will hold a story. A self-guided digital tour will bring its individual glyphs into focus, pairing close details with Rostarr’s memories, references and observations. Follow the work from the full sweep of the façade to its smallest marks and discover the world held inside it.

Across the Desa, Graphysics will take on new textures and forms. Rostarr’s marks will appear on umbrellas, textiles and a limited nonnative capsule developed with Helinox, Kuumba and Patience, moving through garments, furniture and scent. The capsule will be available from the on-site nonnative pop-up throughout the event.

Evolving Landscapes will remain at Desa Potato Head for 12 months. Sunlight will bleach its surface; salt and monsoon rain will soften its edges; each day at the Beach Club will leave another trace. When the façade is eventually dismantled, its materials will be recovered and remade across the Desa, allowing the work to return in unfamiliar forms.