In the aftermath of COP27, the 2022 United Nations Climate Change Conference, we spoke with Bahia Shehab, brilliant Egyptian-Lebanese contemporary artist, with whom we collaborated on Heaven & Hell in the Anthropocene, an experiential artwork, exhibited at the climate summit. The work informs the audience on the possible futures we face as humans if we do – or don’t – change our attitudes towards the environment.

The installation is composed of two adjacent rooms: one representing heaven and the other – hell. Participants do not know which of the two “scenarios of eternity” they will be engaging with, as from the outside the rooms look entirely identical. Before entering, each visitor is given a page from a gamebook (printed fiction that invites the reader to participate in the story by making choices). Based on their choices, and respective sustainability score, visitors are guided to enter either Room 1 or Room 2 – where all their senses are targeted by very different sights, sounds, temperatures, and smells.

See what Bahia has to say about the best moments at COP27, creating immersive experiences and using art to spark conversations and fuel social change.

What inspired you to create Heaven & Hell in the Anthropocene? What is the ‘legacy’ you hope it leaves?

When I was approached by Fine Acts, Yana [Fine Acts’ executive director] gave me an insight for inspiration – how body temperature can affect our decision making process: namely, that people sitting in warmer rooms are more likely to say that ‘global warming’ is a problem. I wanted to present this in a more visceral and conceptual way at the same time. Heaven and Hell are two concepts that are familiar to everybody, and they're also linked to concepts of eternity. So to me, it was crucial to translate a scientific insight into a conceptual one that is accessible to the masses.

For the legacy that I hope it will leave, I think what's important at this point is that we start opening up the conversation, to include everybody. Because these conversations have been happening behind closed doors for a long time. They have been largely between governments, stakeholders in the private sector and the scientific community.

Most of the time everybody else is left out of these conversations. So what the artwork hopes to accomplish is to create a tunnel, create a space, where these two worlds can come together and have a difficult conversation. The legacy of the artwork, I hope, is to be an icebreaker.

What was the thinking behind creating an immersive experience?

I was interested in creating an immersive experience because I wanted people to feel and not think. Thus, in collaboration with the curator Yana, we made the decision to have close to zero visual or textual communication inside the space.

We were met by a lot of questions at the door. People would read the exhibition name from a distance and they would walk up to us and ask, what is this? I think it was important to spark people’s curiosity first, but then to make the body think, not the mind, which is a really challenging exercise because the mind always wants a rational narrative.

And what we wanted to provide is a visceral one, a really urgent one. So when you feel it instinctively in your body, you understand that it's dire – that we are all going to literally burn if we don't do something collectively about it.

Were your expectations met by the visitors’ reactions?

It actually went beyond our wildest expectations. I had no idea how people would react. I was worried that maybe they would not understand, that maybe I was asking too much of my audience. But I think the gamification component did the trick. Everybody wanted to play.

We had over 3000 visitors. I saw people from all around the world come and play. Some were curious, others fearful. Some people passed by to ask what it was, and when we told them, they were literally too scared to walk in.

And to me that's a great insight – there is fear. And those who were courageous enough to walk in and play, were met with a series of decisions that they had to make, that would determine their destiny on the spot. This was really beautiful to see unraveling. People from different walks of life, from different parts of the world, from different social backgrounds, from different academic backgrounds – they all reacted in a very similar way.

Most people wanted to see heaven and then see hell, and vice versa. Most wanted to understand how their decisions affected the bigger picture. The fact that the artwork gave people agency – this was the most amazing thing. To witness how people felt empowered that if they keep the water tap on, their score goes down, or if they reuse their towel, their score goes up – in the same way that they might be judged on whether they go to heaven or go to hell. So that was really beautiful to witness.

So, yes, it was really heartwarming to see how the installation was received. People understood it. They played, they reacted. There was a lot of laughter. There was a lot of joy. And to me, the most important thing is that people enjoy the experience – this is what makes it memorable for them.

So they walk away reflecting on things – not just as consumers of art, but as reflectors. They walked away reconsidering their own personal experiences, their daily decisions – and seeing how they can help tackle climate change.

What were the most surprising and most favorite reactions from participants in the installation?

There were so many! There were two men who were dancing and singing: “Heaven, I'm in Heaven,” when they got to heaven. Then there were little children, who were jumping around Heaven saying: “Oh, we are in heaven. We made it to heaven!” To me, it was the extreme emotional reactions that were the most beautiful to witness as they revealed so much about the people playing and their personalities.

Of course, I had people who walked in and out and said: “We still don't understand.” And I felt like I needed to be sometimes more literal in my explanation. But most people got it right away, and that was wonderful.

As an artist, activist and historian, what, according to you, is the role of art for climate action and shaping the climate movement?

To me, the reason why we worked so hard to make it to COP27 this year is because I believe that art can be part of the bigger conversation. We don’t create art only for society’s entertainment. We're not there just for consumption. Art is a tool for social change. I always believed in that, and in activating the artistic process to serve the community, to help us tackle serious issues, to help policy makers realize that art can be used as a tool in disseminating knowledge, in shifting public perception, and in creating more awareness.

Other artists might dream of being at major artistic events – but to me, being at COP27 was the statement. As an artist, delivering work at such a high profile and urgent conference was really important.

Talking about the role of art, generally, globally, there is now a conversation about “where does art go”. Does art go in the museum? Or is art on the street? Where do we go with art? To me, as an artist, I feel that art should be at the forefront of all important conversations, like the ones that have to do with the climate now. Art is a facilitator. It's the soft power. We should be building on our soft power as humanity to correct the mistakes that we have done to the planet.

What value do you see in sharing your artwork under an open license for people to recreate? Is there already interest for next editions of the artwork?

I come from a street art background. So art for the people is my driving force. I believe in the accessibility of art. I believe that art should be where it's most needed – for the people who don't have the tools or the ability to enjoy it, or the luxury or the background or the facility or the tools to consume it and to use it and for it to change their lives.

Art can indeed change lives and it should be present in places where it can play that role of creating social change. So for me, creating an artwork under an open license is an amazing opportunity to share the vision, the thinking process and the tools to create social change.

This is why I'm really excited. We've had so many teachers walk through the installation and ask for a more affordable, DIY edition of the artwork – and now we are working with Fine Acts on developing a more mobile, cheaper version of this concept. It's a game. It's amazing for children.

On the last day, we were visited by children from an orphanage. Their teachers brought them to see the artwork. They were five to eight years old. They were very young children, but their teachers made an effort to bring them all because they saw the value in their students experiencing such an artwork. So I would like for this artwork to be accessible to teachers, as well as to climate groups, and to anybody who needs it as an educational tool to help their community.

The next edition of the artwork is actually going to be in March, 2023 on the American University in Cairo campus. It will be open to our university community. It will be also used as a testing ground, as a seed for other universities and other schools to experience it. It will be similar to what was created at COP27, but we are hoping to create a faster, cheaper DIY Heaven and Hell that anybody can use to create change in their community.

About Bahia Shehab

Bahia Shehab is an artist and author based in Cairo. She is Professor of design and founder of the graphic design program at The American University in Cairo. Her work has been exhibited in museums, galleries and streets around the world. Through investigating Islamic art history she reinterprets contemporary Arab politics, feminist discourse and social issues.

She has received a number of international recognitions and awards, which include the BBC 100 Women list, a TED Senior Fellowship, and a Prince Claus Award. She is the first Arab woman to receive the UNESCO-Sharjah Prize for Arab Culture and is shortlisted for the Tällberg Foundation’s 2020 Eliasson Global Leadership Prize. Shehab holds a PhD from Leiden University in The Netherlands and is the founding director of Type Lab@AUC.

Her publications include You Can Crush the Flowers: A Visual Memoir of the Egyptian Revolution, At The Corner of a Dream, A Thousand Times NO: The Visual History of Lam-Alif and the co-authored book A History of Arab Graphic Design.

Bahia Shehab: Art should be at the forefront of all important conversations