An exhibition tells the story of the morning of October 7, 2023, when approximately 3,000 people attending the Nova Music Festival in the Israeli desert became the victims of the deadliest attack on a music event in history. According to the Israeli military, Hamas members killed 378 festivalgoers, hundreds were injured and more than 40 were taken hostage into the Gaza Strip.
“October 7, 06:29 AM — The Moment Music Stood Still,” also known as the Nova Exhibition, has been shown in Tel Aviv, New York, Buenos Aires and other cities. Now, it’s on display in Berlin.
Rather than providing a general overview of the conflict, it focuses solely on the individuals who were at the Nova Music Festival in Israel. Through multimedia installations, forensic evidence and firsthand accounts from survivors and their families, the exhibition displays the atrocities to visitors and encourages reflection.
The exhibition takes place on the grounds of the historic Tempelhof Airport, where the festival grounds are reconstructed using multimedia, and consists of three parts. The first part features an introductory video in the entrance hall before visitors enter a replica of a campsite on the festival grounds.
All of the items on display — tents, burned-out cars, personal belongings, bullet-ridden portable toilets — are from the original site. Visitors are encouraged to touch and smell everything or to pick up the cell phones that play videos, exhibition creator and curator Reut Feingold told the German Press Agency (dpa).
The Nova Music Festival Exhibition aims to heal
The second part uses text panels and portraits to focus on the lives of the victims. For example, the young German tattoo artist Shani Louk, who was killed by Hamas. A photo showing her unconscious in the back of a pickup truck, cheered on by the perpetrators, circulated around the world.
The exhibition includes numerous videos on screens, recorded by the victims, describing the attack from their hiding places. Some were also filmed by the perpetrators, who streamed it live on the internet as it was happening. In the center of the exhibition are tables displaying items left behind by festivalgoers: shoes, backpacks, cell phone cases, and clothing.
Grim remains of the massacre of October 7, 2023Image: Paul Zinken/dpa/picture alliance
Finally, the third part is dedicated to healing: Under the motto “We will dance again,” one room reminds visitors of the power of music, community and resistance. “This exhibition also deals with the days and months after the attack, because the healing process is part of everyday life,” said Feingold.
The project is backed by the Tribe of Nova Foundation, founded by the organizers of the Nova Music Festival, and was brought to Berlin in collaboration with representatives of the local music and cultural scene. The exhibition is under the patronage of Berlin Mayor Kai Wegner, Federal Education Minister Karin Prien and Wolfram Weimer, the commissioner for culture and media.
Mayor Wegner: Berlin is a city of freedom and diversity
“The values of the Nova Festival are values that Berlin also stands for,” Mayor Wegner said at the exhibition opening on Sunday evening, according to the Berlin daily newspaper Tagesspiegel. He noted that there has been a worldwide increase in antisemitism. Wegner said that he himself was coming under pressure for hoisting the Israeli flag in front of City Hall, adding: “It will remain there until the last Israeli hostage is free.” Berlin is a city of freedom, diversity, cosmopolitanism and internationalism. “What does not fit in with our city is incitement to hatred and antisemitism,” he explained.
Ron Prosor, Israel’s ambassador to Berlin, said at the opening: “Those who ignore the hostages are betraying them. Looking away allows injustice to flourish, isolates the victims, and silences their voices.”
‘Bring them home now!’: The current peace negotiations between Israel and Hamas give hope to the hostages’ relativesImage: Paul Zinken/dpa/picture alliance
The exhibition opens at a time when peace negotiations between Israel and Hamas are underway. According to Israeli sources, nearly 50 people who were abducted from the Nova Festival and settlements near the border on October 7, 2023, are still being held in the Gaza Strip. Their families continue to hope for their imminent release. It is uncertain whether they are still alive.
Demonstrations against Israel’s actions in the Gaza Strip continue to take place in Berlin, so the organizers are expecting pro-Palestinian protests, as was the case during the exhibition’s display in New York.
“October 7, 06:29 AM — The Moment Music Stood Still” runs until November 16 at Tempelhof Airport. Admission costs €20 and will benefit the Tribe of Nova Foundation.
This article was originally written in German.
