Vibha Galhotra and Elise Bernhardt

Opening Minds Through Art

In 2022, on a rooftop in Jerusalem, a room full of people huddled around a geographical map of the Jordan River made entirely out of food. It was Vibha Galhotra’s latest art piece for her Jerusalem International Fellows program titled, “Who Owns the Water?” an immersive dinner presentation offering perspective on the ownership of natural resources.

Vibha began developing the project several years prior during her residency at the Bellagio Center. “I wanted to curate an immersive and collaborative way of thinking about issues that are very hard to speak about. I was looking for a different way of storytelling through my art practice that showed the effects of war and the climate crisis on human beings,” she said.

“It was extraordinary,” remembered Elise Bernhardt, director of the Jerusalem International Fellows. The dinner salon represented the outcomes of not just one, but two Bellagio projects. In 2015, Elise arrived at Bellagio to figure out the next steps for an artists’ fellowship she led through the Foundation for Jewish Culture, which had just closed. “I came up with a plan to get the program back on its legs. It took seven years, but in March 2022 we had our pilot residency of the Jerusalem International Fellows, and Vibha was a fellow,” Elise said.

Finding common sound

“Vibha cut through boundaries unlike anyone I’ve ever met. I call it the ‘magic of Vibha,’” Elise said, recalling the artworks she created during the Jerusalem International Fellows program. Vibha worked with organizations in East and West Jerusalem to create a work that offered perspective on a primary topic of contention in the city: religious identity.

Vibha says she understands humanity through its relationship to the earth. She decided to use her next piece to find commonality between how the three Abrahamic religions (Judaism, Christianity, and Islam) understand humans’ relationship to nature. “I looked at the Torah, Bible, and Qur’an to see what was written about humans’ relationship with nature,” Vibha said.

She connected with religious leaders from 16 different religious sects and recorded their verses, hymns, and oral accounts of myths. “When the recordings were translated to English, they all spoke the same way about the human-nature relationship,” she said. “They all teach us to be better human beings, and guide us on how to live within our natural domain.”

Once Vibha developed the sound score, she needed a way to play it. She found a sculptor who could help her create a well out of Jerusalem stone that would amplify the sound to a room of listeners. She presented the exhibit at Muslala, the community-based organization she partnered with during her fellowship.

Elise attended the presentation. “As someone who has worked in Jerusalem for the last 15 years, I just felt like she got the spirit of the place and what makes it so special,” she said. The exhibit remains on display, and Elise says it continues to be a place where people meditate and engage in conversation about the foundations of our relationship with nature.

Art opening dialogue

Vibha contends that in regard to global crises like climate change, division among people only hurts us more. “For me, climate change is the most important issue in the world. It’s something we all need to work on, rather than worrying about our differences,” she said.

Vibha and Elise agree that art can be a powerful tool to drive forward productive conversation about difficult topics. “Generally speaking, I think art is one of the only ways to engage people in constructive dialogue around these issues. Artists are able to get people to communicate,” Elise said.

Vibha understands the role she plays as an artist engaged in social issues. “Art has a great power to tell stories and bring people into conversation through empathy. If we use it right, we can definitely lead to a better world,” she said.

Vibha believes that immersive experiences like “Who Owns the Water?” can be transformative. “They can change the world slowly, not by pointing fingers towards anyone but by raising the issues and creating space for discussion and collaboration.”

Convening for progress

When Vibha participated in the Bellagio Center residency, she joined a cohort of people examining human behavior. “It was amazing for me. I really learned great things from my peer group about human behavior because we were all from different walks of life.”

“My project took beautiful shape there at Bellagio,” she said. “I discussed with them how we can curate immersive experiences that offer collaborative ways of talking about politics, the environment, and other difficult issues. The idea was to involve people in the storytelling itself and explore how we are using and consuming natural resources.”

Elise’s residency fell over Passover, and she had the opportunity to host a Seder meal for her cohort, which she said was transformative to her experience. “I asked everyone to bring something that spoke to them about freedom. Someone brought the score of an opera, someone brought a poem, someone from South Africa wrote a letter about being a freedom fighter, everyone brought something special.”

“To get such a result out of this incredibly diverse group of people was the magic of the place to me,” she said.