Live art exhibit from Gran Park, Los Angeles to show extent of loss after Hamas massacre
(Video: Adi Drori)
Residents of Los Angeles who arrived on Sunday afternoon to catch some sun of the weekend in Grand Park in the city center were amazed to find that for a few hours the park transformed into a "field of carnage." Approximately 1,700 local volunteers were took part in the live art performance "When the Music Stopped" and illustrated to Americans the dimensions of the massacre at the Nova music festival in Re'im.
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As part of the performance, 1,400 people were spread out on the ground, some face down and some face up, with their arms and legs extended in all directions, sometimes in unnatural positions to illustrate what happened to the party goers who were slaughtered by Hamas. Another 240 volunteers played the abductees who were taken hostage by Hamas and another 40 symbolized those who were reported missing. A DJ was playing in the background, as "a symbol of the music that was played while innocent lives were mercilessly wiped out."
The person behind the performance is the Israeli-American artist Tomer Peretz. Peretz, originally from Jerusalem, was visiting his family in Israel at the time of the murderous terrorist attack by Hamas, and immediately after it he volunteered at ZAKA and was exposed to sights that he describes as "hell of hell". "We removed not only the bodies of the murdered, but also the bodies of Hamas". He says. "Many Zaka members could not stand the mirrors, many of them collapsed and vomited. I don't want to be too graphic, but people were simply slaughtered there."
Peretz says that the purpose of his performance is to illustrate to the world what 1,400 dead people look like: "It's not just a number. I try to speak and explain what I saw through my power and through my art. In the end, instead of explaining what I saw on the news, I feel more comfortable talking to people through my art."
10 producers worked on the project, including Adi Drori, who is behind many solidarity initiatives throughout the city since the massacre. She says that this performance was particularly complex, required hours of preparation and included drone footage and dozens of volunteers who pretended to be dead, injured, adults and children. Peretz says that drone cameras passed over the people dumped as corpses, with the goal being to create short clips that people around the world could watch.
Among the participants in the performance were descendants of Holocaust survivors, parents of IDF soldiers who are currently on the front lines, and also local residents who felt the need to express support for Israel. Miri Rabinovitch, the daughter of Holocaust survivors who played a wounded woman, said that during the hours she lay on the grass she did not stop thinking about what had happened to the people at the Nova festival: "I laid there in sadness, unable to imagine how cruel it was and how terrible what they went through."
Another participant, Sigal Barnes, did not stop thinking about her daughter, who is now serving in the IDF and enlisted against her mother's wishes. Afraid to walk alone in the streets: "How can it be that in 2023 I should be afraid to walk in the street because I am Jewish? Because I'm Jewish, will I be stabbed in the stomach like I see on TV? It does not make sense".