This two-day exhibition in Bengaluru sheds light on solving the discomfort experienced by marginal communities due to rising heat

In response to India’s intensifying heat stress crisis, Sabha Blr has put together Sweat & Concrete 2025 — a two-day exhibition on all things art, design and community. Organised by People First Cities, the event highlights experiences of informal workers — including construction labourers, street vendors and domestic helpers — who are most vulnerable to rising urban temperatures.

“Sweat & Concrete, as a title, was born out of an intention to capture the realities of climate injustice in rapidly urbanised cities. Concrete symbolises the relentless urban development and hardscaping of cities like Bengaluru, while Sweat symbolises the physical toll and discomfort experienced by those living on the margins, communities most exposed to rising temperatures yet least responsible for them,” shares Sonali Bhasin, one of the organisers.

The Neralu Heat Shelter

Featuring multimedia storytelling, live performances and interactive works, the exhibition also unveils The Neralu Heat Shelter, a collapsible microclimate refuge designed for those on the frontlines of climate change. “Thus far, the conversation about heat stress has been deeply technical: even when discussing its impacts on vulnerable groups, it is a conversation about missing data. Not only is the heat shelter itself interactive, but it represents a departure from the current conversation, which presents problems but no immediately accessible, affordable solutions,” she adds.

The nature of its design is such that it will listen to whatever context it is placed in and respond by being accommodating of the situation — in terms of being scalable, replicable, easy to install or detach and using materials immediately available and inexpensive to the direct user. The architects of The Neralu Heat Shelter, Ankritya Diggavi and Sagar Kandal, brought in a practical focus on creating functional cooling solutions that respond directly to informal workers’ needs, using materials and forms that respect both function and cultural context. “Informal workers form the backbone of several economic systems and are one of the most resourceful communities in terms of adapting to their working situation. Their inputs and thoughts were directly transcribed in the process and physically realised in this current form,” Ankritya elucidates

A play by Kahe Vidushak

People First Cities collaborated with Kahe Vidushak, a city-based theatre collective who are popular for staging socially relevant performances that engage local communities and strike a chord with them using mythology, rapid changes today and other relatable frames.

“Their play, Scorched Shadow, specifically focuses on the experiences of women informal workers facing extreme heat and the silent challenges that come with it. During the creative process, the artistes conducted research, documenting the daily struggles of informal workers, their resilience challenges and overlooked knowledge about coping with heat stress. This research informed the narrative and imagery in the performance, ensuring the play resonates with real experiences and dialogues while making these often invisible challenges visible to wider audiences,” she reveals.

The rest of the event builds off of this idea, with panel discussions that focus on the solutions that the private sector can provide and co-creation workshops to bring issue experts together.

Art for a cause!

Finally, we ask Sonali, what role does she think art can play in reframing how we think about climate justice, particularly for those who are structurally excluded from policy-level conversations. “Art is the most visible and universal language of communication. Rather than requiring excluded communities to access and speak to policymakers in the technical vocabulary and forums that they use, art allows them to completely own their message and communication. Art allows for cultural nuance and breaks down traditional barriers of g ender and caste that kee p excluded communities from taking part in civic action. It can function as an expression of belonging and of ownership and a right to relief from climate change, which is unignorable for those making decisions. It can create a bridge between decision makers and communities, where collaborative action is possible,” she tells us.