From ruins, regrowth: Artists answer October 7 with humanity

An exhibition at the Bible Lands Museum, curated by Yael Boverman-Attas, brings together six artists who found their way back to the studio after the October 7 massacre. The show, titled "As Humankind," explores themes of life, death, and regrowth through works ranging from folded iron trees to a brick ruin cast from a shattered studio.

An exhibition at the Bible Lands Museum in Jerusalem, curated by Yael Boverman-Attas, brings together six artists who found their way back to the studio after the October 7, 2023 massacre. Titled "As Humankind," the show opened to the public on September 24, 2026, in the museum's garden. The title comes from a poem and a verse in Deuteronomy comparing humankind to a tree, emphasizing the ability to regrow after disaster. Galit Shvo's folded iron trees grew out of sketches and a fascination with branching; she initially could not work after the massacre and instead cut small trees with children. Sharon Pazner built the exhibition's largest ruin, Four Rooms, from the wreckage of her own studio, casting each brick individually with fragments of earlier works. Eva Avidar's figure straining toward an apple, made a decade ago, was reinterpreted by the curator as a metaphor for fragility and hope after the war. Gabriel Klasmer shows a figurative sculpture made from compressed shopping bags. Max Epstein carves with archaic tools, creating a roadside marker that points to the border between suffering and silence. The article's narrative voice remains neutral throughout, reporting the artists' statements and the curator's framing without evaluative descriptors.