Sala-Manca Group: Like a Bird’s Nest

September 24 - November 29, 2026

Opening Reception: September 23 | 7 - 9 PM

FENTSTER is pleased to present a landmark retrospective from the international artist collective, the Sala-Manca Group. Installation, video and photography are exhibited together for the first time, all connected to the ritual object of the sukkah—a temporary hut traditionally erected during the Jewish festival of Sukkot. Over the last twenty years, Sala-Manca has explored the symbolism and function of the sukkah and related themes of shelter, impermanence, displacement, and liberation. In their hands, the sukkah is interchangeably a ritual structure, an ethnographic object, a work of art, an ephemeral monument, a site of protest, and a performative arena. This exhibition traverses unlikely geographies, travelling through time and place, from a small town in Germany where no Jews remain to a Jahalin Bedouin community in the Judaean desert; from the contested streets of Jerusalem to the fraught landscapes of Ontario. 

Experience three full size sukkah structures including a new outdoor commission by FENTSTER from local artists: Maxine Lee Ewaschuk, Rochelle Rubinstein, and Jessica Thalman who also created a window installation at our host venue, PIX FILM Gallery.

Sala-Manca Group (Lea Mauas and Diego Rotman) in collaboration with Meydad Eliyahu,| Brian Hoad, Ktura Manor, Itamar Mendes-Flohr, Yeshaiahu Rabinowitz, and Nir Yahalom

The exhibition features:

  • The Deller Sukkah (2017) /// An updated replica of a painted wooden sukkah made in 19th Century Bavaria

  • The Kingston/Jerusalem Sukkah (2018-2024) /// With murals of the Canadian winter and an abstracted representation of the 2023 artist intervention in Jerusalem: Monument of Sukkot for Peace 

  • The Eternal Sukkah Project (2014) /// A short film and documentation about the Eternal Sukkah made in collaboration with members of the Jahalin Bedouin Tribe in Khan al Akhmar 

  • “Geography of Cracks״ /// A short film about the Deller Sukkah project 

  • “Permanent Residency” /// A short film about the artists’ temporary residence in Kingston and the creation of a sukkah there

The run of the exhibition will include extended hours and special events for all ages during the Festival of Sukkot as well as ongoing artist talks and gatherings. DETAILS COMING SOON!

Presented by FENTSTER in collaboration with venue partner PIX FILM Gallery 

With generous support from the Emerald Foundation, the Doveleaf Foundation, the Lynne and Michael Mitchell and Family, Anonymous, and the University of Toronto–Hebrew University of Jerusalem Research & Training Alliance, Models of Urban Evolution

With deepest thanks to Madi Piller, Robert Shostak, Ziysah von Bieberstein, Nino Biniashvili, and Mamuta Art and Research Center

FENTSTER Pop-Up 

at PIX FILM Gallery 1411 Dufferin Street, Toronto (between Davenport and Dupont)

Exhibition Hours

Wednesdays & Thursdays 1 to 6 pm

Fridays to Sundays 1 to 5 pm

Special Sukkot Hours

September 26 - October 4 

Open Daily Noon to 7 pm

Bring your lunch and dinner to our outdoor sukkah and visit the exhibition! The artists will be onsite many days and special programming will be offered most evenings. View the special Festival of Sukkot Festival schedule here

*Hours are subject to change, please check the website and social media for updates

Upon request, we are pleased to schedule additional visiting hours as well as group tours and private events. Contact info@fentster.org 

ABOUT THE ARTISTS

Lea Mauas and Diego Rotman are artists who have been creating in various fields—performance, video, new media, and installation—under the name of the Sala-Manca Group since 2000; both born in Buenos Aires, they were based in Jerusalem since 1996 and are now also based in Toronto. They have presented their work at renowned venues worldwide, including Castle Ujazdowski (Warsaw), Kaunas – Cultural Capital 2022, Eyebeam (New York), BlackBox (Belfast), IMPA (La Fábrica, Buenos Aires), KunstHall 314 (Bergen), Rum44 (Aarhus), KlezKanada (Quebec), the Israel Museum, Tate Modern (London), Haifa Museum of Art, the Israeli Center for Digital Art (Holon), and the Jerusalem Film Festival. Both Mauas and Rotman have served as arts lecturers in leading institutions in Israel and internationally, publishing academic and non-academic books and scholarly articles and their work explores cultural translation and migration, focusing on language, media, and urban environment, often addressing tensions between low- and high-tech aesthetics and sociopolitical issues. Sala-Manca founded and edited Hearat Shulaym (Note in the Margin), an independent quarterly for contemporary art and literature (2001–2007), and also curated and produced the Heara multidisciplinary art events (2001), site-specific happenings at politically charged historical sites across Jerusalem; together they established the Underground Academy artist residency program and the Museum of the Contemporary. In 2017, the artists received the Award of the Ministry of Culture, and their works are in the collections of the Israel Museum and the Tel Aviv Museum of Art. Between 2019 and 2024, Rotman served as the Head of the Department of Theater Studies at the Hebrew University and was a Visiting Professor at the Centre for Jewish Studies at the University of Toronto in 2024; he is currently a Senior Lecturer at the Hebrew University and part of the University of Toronto–Hebrew University of Jerusalem Research & Training Alliance: Models of Urban Evolution, while Mauas has served as Director of the Mamuta Art and Research Center in Jerusalem since Sala-Manca founded it in 2009 and is currently pursuing a PhD at Queen's University.

ABOUT FENTSTER

FENTSTER (meaning "window" in Yiddish) began in 2016 as an independent, artist-run exhibition space located in the storefront window of the hub for the Jewish communal organization, Makom. For nearly 9 years, FENTSTER presented rotating, site-specific installations of contemporary art connected to the Jewish experience in that window in downtown Toronto under the leadership of curator / founder, Evelyn Tauben. FENTSTER has also developed the exhibition On the Doorposts in partnership with the Toronto Holocaust Museum as well as partnered on projects and events with the Noor Cultural Centre, Ashkenaz Festival, Ontario Jewish Archives, Myseum Festival, and many more. Providing a window onto Jewish life through art, FENTSTER’s work is now moving beyond its initial window gallery space – catalyzing critical conversations through exhibitions, programs, gatherings, and other initiatives furthering a commitment to creating a world free from oppression and to telling diverse stories connected to the Jewish experience. FENTSTER recently co-led the SHVILIM project in partnership with No Silence on Race and Shoreline Collaboratives, commissioned by the Ontario Arts Council. SHVILIM offers a new path to understanding and speaking about antisemitism in and through the arts.

ABOUT PIX FILM COLLECTIVE

PIX FILM Collective engages with artistic voices facilitating space for research, creation, exhibition and discussion at PIX FILM Studio/Gallery. The collective provides appropriate support by means of mentoring, guidance and equipment materials resources for artistic explorations. At PIX FILM Collective we encourage cultural advocacy and collaboration with service organizations.