Traveling Nova Music Festival Exhibition Hauntingly Hopeful

After starting in New York and then heading to Los Angeles, “The Nova Music Festival Exhibition: October 7th 06:29 AM – The Moment Music Stood Still,” is on display through Saturday, Feb. 15 in North Miami. (Photo courtesy of The Nova Music Festival Exhibition: October 7th 06:29 AM – The Moment Music Stood Still)

On a usual day at 6:29 a.m., most of us are sleeping or just waking. On Oct 7, 2023, at 6:29 a.m. Israeli time, most of the 3,882 attendees at the Nova Music Festival in Re’im welcomed the dawn with music and dance. Then the Hamas terrorist assault began. When it was over, more than 400 concertgoers were dead, 44 were kidnapped, and many more were injured and traumatized.

The Nova attack was just one part of the assault on Israel from Gaza. Yet Nova stands out because of the juxtaposition of happy revelers, mostly young, and dedicated to peace and harmony, with the deadly rampage.

Words fall short when portraying the shock, trauma, and cognitive dissonance survivors experienced; the pain and grief felt for the dead and fears for the hostages. There are consequences from bullet wounds and other injuries that will last a lifetime. Yet where words fail, images, objects, and sensual immersion can convey a perception of what happened and how the Nova festival community has come together for healing and hope.

The installation is about hope and healing and draws from different traditions. (Photo courtesy of The Nova Music Festival Exhibition: October 7th 06:29 AM – The Moment Music Stood Still)

That is what organizers of “The Nova Music Festival Exhibition: October 7th 06:29 AM – The Moment Music Stood Still,” want visitors to experience. The installation in North Miami runs through Saturday, Feb. 15.

Divided into three parts, the exhibition begins with a video room showing the festival. The next section recreates the festival landscape, with immersive video and audio elements. The third experience is the healing room, where visitors learn about the Tribe of Nova Foundation, dedicated to helping survivors and bereaved family members.

The three rooms create interlocking physical narratives: pre-attack; the attack and the landscape; and the healing room.

On hand are organizers of the exhibit, along with massacre survivors who are willing to tell their stories. While the videos of terrorists in real time and the chaos are frightening and moving, the narratives and images are not overwhelmingly violent; the ultimate message is of hope and resilience.

“I always say the most unimaginable thing happened to us,” says Ofir Amir, a founder of the festival, exhibit organizer and a survivor who was near the main stage when the invasion began and says he saw the incoming rockets. The onsite police immediately told everyone to flee. “We had no idea what was coming next,” says Amir. He and a few others reached a car. Still, he was shot in both legs, and watched a friend die by his side. He used his cell phone to call his pregnant wife to assure her that he was fine. He hid for three hours in an orange grove, murder happening all around, before being rescued. It wasn’t too long before he, other festival founders and survivors began thinking about how they could react.

Burned out cars from the Nova site are part of the exhibit. (photo courtesy of The Nova Music Festival Exhibition: October 7th 06:29 AM – The Moment Music Stood Still)

“But it is not only a story about darkness, but about light,” he says. The first Nova memorial took place in Tel Aviv. Created and directed by Reut Feingold, it lasted for 10 weeks and drew thousands. The organizers then joined with partners Scooter Braun, Josh Kadden and Joe Teplow to bring the exhibit to the United States, first to New York this spring, where they say they welcomed more than 100,000 visitors, and most recently to Los Angeles.

In the exhibit’s first section, visitors sit on benches in a room where the ceiling is draped with a fabric tent from the festival. A seven-minute video shows the revelers and along with comments from fairgoers. Foliage off to the side is meant to echo the trees that were at the actual site. There’s also the Mushroom Stage timetable, showing when artists performing would be on stage. The timetable shows that Sonik Scizzor was scheduled to play when the attacks began.

The next room is the heart of the exhibit. Visitors walk through the re-created landscape, where actual tents, clothing, blankets, backpacks and items seen at any campsite – personal care products; the occasional stuffed animal – are arranged. The music from the festival plays (The last deejay to play the main stage was Yarin Ilovich) and, at short intervals, videos created by concert-goers (all of whom survived) play on screens as do attacks by the terrorists. The immersion gives a shadowy echo of what Nova festivalgoers experienced.

Terrorists’ bullet holes can be seen in the portable toilets that were hiding places for some festivalgoers. (Photo courtesy of The Nova Music Festival Exhibition:
October 7th 06:29 AM – The Moment Music Stood Still)

Adding to the verisimilitude are several burned-out cars from the festival, which were brought from the site by the organizers, as were a group of portable toilets, showing the actual bullet holes. Several people survived by huddling low in the structures. Nearby the cars in the exhibition is the bar, complete with the bottles and drinks that sold at the festival.

Farther into the room is a round dais, the installation lighted from below, dedicated to three healing traditions, the mystical Jewish Kabbalah, the Mexican curanderos, or sacred healers, and the Intentional Art Code, from which the dais’s keyhole design originates, indicating that, as explained in the placard, “even in the face of the most painful circumstances, when reason eludes us, we hold the answer and the personal and collective ability to transform, grow and heal.”

Finally, on a far wall are an array of photos of those who died and those still missing.

The last room of the exhibit is the healing room, where visitors can  decompress. The space has a water element in its center and placards around the perimeter educate visitors about The Tribe of Nova Foundation, which provides services to survivors and families of the fallen.

Large words in neon, “We Will Dance Again,” offer the final message of the exhibition.

The message of life is encapsulated in the neon words, “We Will Dance Again.” (Photo courtesy of The Nova Music Festival Exhibition: October 7th 06:29 AM – The Moment Music Stood Still”)

During a visit set up for the press in North Miami, several survivors were on hand to talk about their experiences. Shani Ivgi was helping out at the entrance with a friend when they heard the rockets. She ran for her car and could drive to the nearby city of Ofakim. The friend did not survive. Ivgi is coordinating and guiding other survivors who rotate in and out of Miami to bear witness – organizers believe more than three weeks at the exhibit could be overwhelming. Yet being part of the endeavor is healing as well, says Ivgi.

“In the beginning, I isolated myself,” she says. The 31-year-old architect and designer is now deeply involved in bringing the Nova story to the rest of the world. “I prefer to go back to community. Helping people is helping myself double.”

Says fellow survivor and organizer Amir, “You enter the light again. It shows hope, strength and resilience.”

WHAT: “The Nova Music Festival Exhibition: October 7th 06:29 am – The Moment Music Stood Still”

 WHERE: Greenwich Studios, 12100 NE 16th Ave., North Miami

WHEN: 11 a.m. to 8 p.m., Tuesday through Sunday, last exhibition entry at 7:40 p.m; 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Friday, last exhibition entry at 4:40 p.m.; closed on Mondays except Dec. 30, 11 a.m. to 8 p.m., last exhibition entry at 7:40 p.m., runs through Feb. 15

COST: $8, $18, $36, $72, $180 with a maximum purchase of eight tickets.

INFORMATION: www.novaexhibition.com. All bags are subject to search; see website for items that are not allowed on site. The exhibit is recommended for those 16 and older due to the graphic nature of the content.

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