Heaven & Hell
in the Anthropocene
Two Scenarios of Eternity
Heaven & Hell in the Anthropocene is an experiential artwork that informs the audience on the possible futures we face as humans if we do – or don’t – change our attitudes towards the environment.
For this work, we collaborated with prominent Egyptian-Lebanese contemporary artist Bahia Shehab – and launched it in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt, as part of the 2022 United Nations Climate Change Conference, that pretty much decides the future of our planet.
On site at the Green Zone at COP27, Sharm El-Sheikh
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.
In both rooms of the installation, visitors find mirrors — in Hell they are broken, in Heaven they are big and tall. Bahia Shehab says that they prompt reflection: “For us to face our future, we really need to look at ourselves.”
Photos on this page: by Fine Acts, Bahia Shehab, and Amr El-Harer
Welcome to HEAVEN
Heaven is a light, bright, gentle, domed interior. It is set at a comfortable temperature of 21°C degrees. You are surrounded by nature sounds – birds, water, wind through leaves – and scents of freshness and orange blossoms.
Welcome to HELL
Hell is a small, dark, angled, claustrophobic space. It smells of sh*t, decomposing fruit, and hospital rooms. It sounds like construction, drilling, and disaster. It is set to 38°C degrees – the Arctic’s highest recorded temperature to date, as well as the body temperature over which a person is generally considered ill/unwell.
FEATURED IN
The aim of the work is to make people feel like stakeholders in our collective future and to drive action towards making change possible. We are at the point of Earth’s story where we as the main protagonist need to make a crucial decision.
By our collective effort we can turn this planet into heaven or hell.