Photos: Bahia Shehab, Hadeer Mahmoud, Mahmoud Nasr, Markus Lange
Pyramids of Garbage
An 11 m wide, 6 m high pyramid made out of garbage was erected in Cairo, Egypt, by prominent artist and TED Senior Fellow Bahia Shehab.
By placing an actual pyramid of garbage in Cairo, the home of the only surviving wonder of the world, the great pyramids of Giza, the artwork Pyramids of Garbage hopes to bring to the attention of the viewer the contrast between majestic eternity and wonder and our current apathetic over-producing, over-consuming existence.
Pyramids of Garbage is erected in one of the most densely populated areas in Cairo, home to the largest concentration of garbage collectors. The pyramid was created in collaboration with local carpenters and school children from the area.
“As a species we have built monuments that have defeated time. We have designed civilizations that dreamt of eternity. With climate change, this eternity is now challenged. Now is the time for us to rethink our legacy on this planet. Are we going to come together to build a sustainable future for all of us or will our new legacy be pyramids of garbage?”
This work is part of our global art action with Countdown, TED’s global initiative to champion and accelerate solutions to the climate crisis. We worked with a group of TED Fellows on ten public artworks, all launching on 10.10.2020 in ten cities around the world. The goal – to raise awareness for Countdown, while translating key climate issues in ways that spur imaginations and trigger participation. See all projects here.
Video: Mahmoud Nasr; audio: Yasser Sabry
Photo: Ryan Lash / TED
THE ARTIST
Bahia Shehab is a multidisciplinary artist, designer and art historian. 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.