October Seventh

ANU – Museum of the Jewish People now displays a new exhibition, "October Seventh", examining how Israeli culture reacts to the war.

The exhibition curates works by 25 artists whose creative activity reflects the atrocious times Israeli society is facing since October 7th. Some of them are living artists, some deceased – either murdered on October 7th or died during the ongoing war, while others are residents (or former residents) of the southern areas, who suffered the loss of their loved ones, their homes, or whose families were affected by the horrors of the massacre.

The new exhibition wishes to frame a current situation and to record the unique creative burst that is well felt among Israelis since the war began.

Participating artists: Shai Azoulay / Odelia Elhanani / Eyal Assulin / Raz Ben-Ami / Sofie Berzon MacKie / Shira Glezerman / Yosef Joseph Dadoune / Shirel Horovitz / Inbar Heimann z"l / Jonathan Chazor z"l / Ziva Jelin / Miriam Cabessa / Zvika Lachman / Haim Maor / Roee Idan z"l / Oren Fischer / Avishai Platek / Amit Cabessa / Eviatar (Tari) Kipnis z"l / Irit Regev / Nil and Karin Romano / Shirley Shor / Leeor Shtainer / Dina Shenhav / Keren Shpilsher

Curators: Carmit Blumensohn, Michal Houminer 

The aftermath of the horrific attacks on October 7, 2023 and the war that followed led many Israelis to rethink the way we interpret our history, art, and culture. The prevailing feeling is that even after the war ends, things will never be as they were and that the anger and profound grief will have a lasting effect on our lives.

In times of joy as well as in times of sadness art has always been a medium for coping   and struggling. Artists are given to uniquely responding to and portraying the events of the day, interpreting and articulating our collective memory. In the words of Sophie Barzon MacKie, a survivor of the massacre in Kibbutz Be’eri and the curator of the local gallery that was burned to the ground, “Art articulates occurrences and provides us with images.”

It has been said that “when the canons are heard, the muses are silent.” The need to survive is thought to quiet ideas, thoughts, and creation. This notion seems to have turned on its head in this war, and we are experiencing an abundance of creativity in all art fields. As the canons are heard, the voices of the muses are emerging all the more clearly from deep down in the throat.

This exhibition does not intend to sum things up or offer an angle on Israeli art since October 7. It presents a particular situation and bears witness to the unique burst of creativity in Israeli society since the outbreak of the war.

The Pain Front

(Music Playlist)

Among the first to  give voice to our collective grief after the horrific massacre of October 7 were Israeli musicians. By the end of the first week of the war, they began performing voluntarily all over the country. The musicians provided temporary relief and an opportunity to be in the company of  familiar stars for people who survived unthinkable trauma or were about to leave for war. They played at funerals and hospitals, performed for evacuees from the South and the North, for survivors of the music festivals massacres, and soldiers at meeting points. They often performed with only a guitar – and a lot of soul.

These gatherings were more than performances; they were, first and foremost, intimate encounters between human beings. At times, these artists were the first to hear the stories of evacuees, of people who had been injured or had lost loved ones. These encounters provided emotional and human energy that will likely be topics of future discussions.

The exhibition’s soundtrack is comprised of songs we have heard since October 7. Many are familiar songs that the war has charged with new meaning.

War Diary: October 7

(Film. 23 min)

The film War Diary was initially created for the exhibition Local Testimony 2023. It includes 300 news photos shot in the Gaza Envelope region after the October 7 massacre and during the ensuing war.

The curators of Local Testimony, Dana Wohlfeiler Lalkin, Vardi Kahana, Anat Saragusti, and Ami Steinitz chose the photographs while considering how creative acts of documentation shape and formulate Israeli collective memory.

Video and sound editor: Ran Slavin

Graphic Design: Anat Kleiman

Production: Sandy Teperson