An artistic installation featuring an altar that tells a “Kabbalah story of infinity being hurt by evil and then the earth cracked,” Faktor says. The white cloths represent “angels flying to the sky as a commemoration for those that were murdered.” The installation features “original videos from the party of everybody dancing,” Faktor adds. “It’s a combination of a dancefloor that one day will come alive again, and a commemoration.”
Of the 1,300 burnt vehicles collected from the festival site, organizers brought over six cars for the exhibit. “It stands for itself, you don’t need to say much about it,” says Faktor, noting that the light inside the car is “one of the messages of this exhibit: We’re not there just to show the horror, but to tell the story and there’s always a light in everything to take it to the optimistic side.”
A portion of the camping area that was attacked. Organizers have placed cell phones, iPads, WhatsApp messages, and videos taken by attendees before and during the attack. “You have to walk on the items, which makes people feel very uncomfortable,” Faktor says. “They just see the fun and the life left over in this campsite.”
Rings, a photo, and a small disco ball collected from the festival site. Nearly every item in the exhibit was found at the festival and brought over.
One of the cars found at the festival. ““There is no symbol of any political aspect,” Faktor says. “We refer to ourselves as human beings, citizens of the world, people who live for love. In trance music tradition, equality between people who are diverse and come from different parts of society with different beliefs is the most important element.”
A portion of the market from the festival. Like many trance festivals, the market featured stalls selling clothes, sunglasses, artwork, and various Hindu, Eastern, and Middle Eastern cultural items.
Four Porta-Potties from the festival. “We thought about this a lot because Porta-Potties are usually quite an ugly element at most festivals,” Faktor says. “We wanted to show the bullet holes of people that were murdered inside and we marked each bullet hole. It symbolizes the exhibit so much. It’s important to say that by each element that we’re showing, there’s always video testimony of someone telling the story of what happened to them at the specific point.”
A few days after the massacre, volunteers collected and organized more than 7,000 items left on-site from the festival, including shoes, shirts, wallets, phones, and sunglasses. “You can see by this collection that the fashion of the trance culture and of youngsters in open-air festivals all around the world is similar to Coachella and Burning Man,” says Faktor.
A wall with individual photos of those who were murdered at the festival. The area features candles and a tray of postcards where visitors can write messages.
Various items left over from the camping area.
Camping gear with a bomb shelter in the back left of the photo where festival attendees originally hid, thinking the attack was only missiles.
The original sound system from the festival. “The man who operated the soundsystem, Matan Lior, was murdered and was a very good friend of ours,” Faktor says. “It’s as much a tribute to him. It creates the soundtrack that follows the exhibit wherever you go.”
More items left over at the camping area. “It’s important to say that when you look at these pictures, you understand the universal culture that these kids come from,” says Faktor. “It’s the backgammon. It’s the Indian cloth. It’s the masks. It’s the books. Just trying to show what their life was about.”
A typical camping area found at the festival.
The exhibit’s final room. The motto “We will dance again” became a “key message of the exhibit,” Faktor says. “We concentrate on having the water and the stones as part of Earth with a reflection of the ‘We will dance again.’ All the stones were put down by people who visited the exhibit and wrote something. After a while, this was what was created by the crowd. It gives a pattern of infinity and tries to act as a healing element.”