A new multi-sensory art installation on the rooftop of Azrieli Tel Aviv Mall seeks to guide visitors through Israel’s defining moments from the morning of Oct. 7, 2023, to the present day.
“We Shall Rise,” created by photojournalist Ziv Koren and writer and poet Noam Horev, opens June 9 and is scheduled to run through the end of October. The project, hosted by Azrieli Group, turns the mall’s rooftop into a 500-square-meter public art space overlooking the Tel Aviv skyline.
Ziv Koren and Noam Horev on 'We Shall Rise'
(Video: Ilan Levinsohn)
The installation combines video art, photography, text, music and sound across 10 large-scale structures, with projections tracing moments of rupture, heroism, grief and hope. Visitors move through the space with a personal audio system in Hebrew or English during an experience lasting about 45 minutes.
“We’re here in the venue of ‘We Shall Rise,’” Koren told ynet Global at a preview for journalists. “It’s a platform of kind of an exhibition, but based on video art of 10 projections, starting from the morning of Oct. 7 until the missile that fell on Israel from Iran just a couple of weeks ago, putting us on the timeline of everything that happened in Israel throughout this period of time.”
Koren said the goal is for “every Israeli and every person around the world” to experience the installation and “go through a very deep emotional experience” connected to what Israel has endured during what he called an unforgettable period.
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'We Shall Rise,' a multi-sensory installation by Ziv Koren and Noam Horev, opens June 9 on the rooftop of Azrieli Tel Aviv Mall
(Photo: Ziv Koren)
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The installation uses 10 large-scale projection structures to guide visitors through Israel’s defining moments since Oct. 7, 2023
(Photo: Ziv Koren)
Koren and Horev, two prominent Israeli cultural figures, have documented the period since Oct. 7 in different forms: Koren through stark photography and Horev through texts and poems. Their collaboration turns those works into an immersive visual and textual journey moving between the front line and the home front, devastation and recovery, personal grief and collective resilience.
The installation includes images and references from Koren’s new photography book, “The Return in October,” a follow-up to his widely acclaimed “The Seventh of October.” It also features original texts and poems by Horev, some of them drawn from his book “Transparent Threads.” Both books will be available for purchase at the end of the experience, with “The Return in October” making its public debut through the installation.
Among the works projected in the space are “A Grey Sunrise,” focused on the morning of Oct. 7; “How Do You Explain to a Child,” dealing with shock and chaos; “The Miracle of People,” about civilian mobilization; “The Human Spirit,” about heroism and recovery; and “We Shall Rise,” centered on hope and renewal.
Horev said the launch was deeply emotional after nearly two years of work. “We are here now on the roof of Azrieli,” he told ynet Global. “My heart is pounding. My stomach is turning. It is incredibly moving.”
He described the installation as “an emotional, sweeping and powerful Israeli journey” through the difficult years Israel has experienced.
“The installation engages all the senses: sound, original music, texts, video art and sets,” Horev said. “I truly think nothing like this has ever been done in Israel.”
Asked who the installation is for, Horev said: “For anyone who feels Israeli. For anyone who wants comfort, strength and a renewed sense of Israeli pride.”
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Photojournalist Ziv Koren’s images and Noam Horev’s texts are projected across the rooftop space, accompanied by music and personal audio
(Photo: Ziv Koren)
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Visitors move through a 45-minute journey of rupture, grief, heroism and hope against the Tel Aviv skyline
(Photo: Ziv Koren)
“I truly believe every Israeli in this country should see it,” he said. “And later, people outside Israel as well.”
Danna Azrieli, CEO of Azrieli Group, said the project grew out of the company’s connection to the Israeli public and was intended as a space for reflection on the crisis, heroism and hope Israeli society has experienced since Oct. 7.
She said the choice of the Azrieli Tel Aviv Mall rooftop was symbolic because it is a central meeting point passed daily by tens of thousands of Israelis from across the country.
“In this space, which in many ways embodies the full richness of the Israeli human mosaic, it becomes possible to create a shared moment — of memory, solidarity, resilience, pride and hope as a people,” Azrieli said.