Artist Makes Global Leaders Sweat at COP27 With Heaven and Hell Art Installation

Prominent Egyptian-Lebanese contemporary artist Bahia Shehab teamed up with Fine Acts to produce an art installation to “make global leaders sweat at COP27.”

The installation envisions two competing scenarios for the future. The art was launched at the COP27 annual meeting on climate change. The artwork titled Heaven and Hell in the Anthropocene was influenced by a famous study that found people sitting in warmer rooms are more likely to say that global warming is a problem.

Since the team couldn’t heat the many rooms at COP27, they created an immersive public art installation that invited leaders to experience two ‘scenarios of eternity.’

“Many governments, companies and individuals are still insensitive to scientific facts and numbers. Thus, a more physical and visceral experience is needed,” says Yana Buhrer Tavanier, co-founder and executive director of Fine Acts.

The art installation is made of two rooms, with one representing heaven and the other representing hell. The participants don’t know which of the two they will be engaging with as the outside of the rooms looks identical. Before entering, they are prompted with a series of choices that send them either to heaven or hell. They are then targeted by different sights, sounds, temperatures, and smells, a press release says.

“For many the perception of eternity is divided between the two poles of heaven in hell. Living in the Anthropocene – the most recent period in Earth’s history when human activity started to have a significant impact on the planet’s climate and ecosystems – we need to ask ourselves, what’s our eternity really going to look like? Are we going to heaven, or are we going to hell?” says artist Bahia Shehab.

Source: TED/YouTube

Shehab aims to make people feel like their choices and decisions mean the difference for our collective future. They hope the art installation will drive action and make a difference in our fight against Climate change.

Cities all over the world, from California to Vietnam, are facing a climate crisis, and millions of people are protesting all over the world. Studies have shown that eating more plant-based can add over a decade to your lifespan, it can save the world’s forests, it benefits the environment, and it is significantly better for your health! Nations worldwide have urged people to eat more plant-based to curb climate change.

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