After debuting in Tel Aviv and then New York City, the Nova Exhibit opens on Aug. 17 in Los Angeles, memorializing the victims of the Oct. 7 terror attack in southern Israel. Titled “October 7th, 6:29 AM – The Moment the Music Stood Still,” the installation recreates the camp and festival grounds with meticulous detail, taking visitors through an immersive timeline of the tragic events of that day. The 50,000-square-foot exhibit space in Culver City was transformed by organizers who brought charred vehicles, blankets, books, backgammon boards, coolers, towels, string lights, folding chairs, food wrappers, festival signage, hats and other personal belongings left behind from the Nova Music Festival.
“Everything you see there on the ground, the tents, the canopies, everything is original,” Ilan Faktor, one of the exhibit organizers, told the Courier. “Everything is from the festival. The shoes, everything you see in the lost and found, everything is original.” From the portable restrooms pierced with bullet holes to the beverage bottles at the marketplace bar and the sound system; everything in the exhibit was recovered from the Nova festival after the carnage.
Throughout the exhibition, video footage from attendees and testimony from survivors play next to corresponding festival sites, hauntingly capturing the essence of the victims’ and survivors’ experiences.
“It was the best festival,” Michal Ohana, a Nova survivor, told the Courier. “The energy, the vibe, the people, the smiles—it was wow.” After the fighting broke out, Ohana hid under an Israeli military tank for roughly six hours with a gunshot wound in her leg and her body covered with ricochets.
“I lost 10 of my friends at the festival, and two of my friends were kidnapped, and they are still in Gaza,” Ohana said. “I’m still alive, and I need to do something for my friends, for the hostages, for the families, for the survivors, and I started to share my story, to tell the truth to the world about what happened to us and what is still happening to us.”
“They shot me in my leg,” Ohana said. “I don’t understand how I can do all these things, but now I’m dancing, walking, surfing, and it’s a miracle that I’m here today and I can share my story.”
The installation ends with a healing room, a call to action to bring the Israeli hostages home, and a message of hope: “We will dance again.”
The exhibit runs from Aug. 17 through Oct. 8 in Culver City. To learn more, visit https://www.novaexhibition.com/.
