07/10. Something Terrible Must Happen

On the walls of the New East Culture Institute, delicate lines and haunting colors converge in a raw, emotional exhibition that gives form to the unspeakable. 07/10. Something Terrible Must Happen is a chilling visual reflection on the horrors of 7 October 2023—a day that marked one of the darkest chapters in Israel’s recent history.

Organized in collaboration with the Embassy of Israel in Latvia, this exhibition features 17 deeply moving illustrations created in direct response to the atrocities of that day—now known as Black Saturday. Over 1,200 lives were lost when Hamas militants launched a brutal and unprovoked attack: invading homes, killing families, and abducting civilians—including babies, women, and the elderly—into Gaza. These drawings, at first glance almost innocent in their simplicity, reveal through accompanying texts a harrowing inner world shaped by grief, fear, and unimaginable trauma.

In this context, illustration becomes a form of urgent testimony—a language that expresses what words cannot. With minimal lines and layered metaphors, each piece conveys shock, vulnerability, defiance, and resilience. This is art created not in the silence of studios but in the immediacy of pain—echoing a global cry for justice and remembrance.

The exhibition does not aim to spark political debate, but to foster human connection: to bear witness, to hold space, and to ensure we do not forget. It reminds us how art can make the invisible visible—and the incomprehensible, just a little more understood.

Public Program

The exhibition opened with a meeting between representatives of the Embassy of Israel and Daugavpils University, engaging visitors in a thoughtful dialogue on memory, trauma, and solidarity. As part of the public program, young audiences were also invited to a screening of Supernova by Duki Dror and Yossi Bloch—the first documentary to chronicle, minute by minute, the horrifying attack on the Supernova music festival during the events of 7 October. Compiled from real-time footage—including terrorists’ GoPros, victims’ phones, and dashcams—the film offers an immersive and deeply disturbing account of terror and resilience.