Sala-Manca Group: Like a Bird’s Nest

FENTSTER Pop-Up, Toronto

Detail of the mural suite on the Sala-Manca Group’s Kingston-Jerusalem Sukkah (2019-2024)

Announcing a Major Retrospective Exhibition from the Sala-Manca Group with New Work from Toronto Artists Maxine Lee Ewaschuk, Rochelle Rubinstein, and Jessica Thalmann

September 24 – November 29, 2026
Opening Event: Wednesday, September 23 | 7–9pm
FENTSTER Pop-Up @ PIX FILM Gallery, Toronto
Curator | Evelyn Tauben

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.

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 Khan al-Ahmar; from the contested streets of Jerusalem to the fraught landscapes of Ontario.

Experience three full-size sukkah structures including a new outdoor commission from artists: Maxine Lee Ewaschuk, Rochelle Rubinstein, and Jessica Thalmann. Thalmann is also debuting a window installation at the host venue, PIX FILM Gallery, entitled Sky Light // Small Hands.

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

Presented by FENTSTER with venue partner PIX FILM Gallery

Sala-Manca Group, Monument of Sukkot for Peace event in Jerusalem (October 5-6, 2023) featuring the Deller Sukkah Replica (2017) and the Kingston Sukkah (2019).

Launch Events:

September 24 – October 5, 2026

• Guest speakers including Galit Hasan-Rokem, Abu Suleiman al-Korshan, Bashar Al Shawwa, Sidura Ludwig & more
• Artist talks
• Extended hours
• Guided exhibition tours
• Bring a meal to enjoy in our outdoor sukkah

Learn more

Jessica Thalmann, Sky Light // Small Hands (2026), detail of a new window installation commissioned by FENTSTER.

About the Artists

Lea Mauas and Diego Rotman have been creating in 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. Their work explores cultural translation and migration, focusing on language, media, and urban environment, often addressing sociopolitical issues. Their work has been presented at 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 (Jerusalem), Tate Modern (London), Haifa Museum of Art, and the Jerusalem Film Festival. In 2001, Sala-Manca produced Heara, arts happenings at politically charged sites across Jerusalem. They founded Mamuta Art and Research Center in 2009.

Maxine Lee Ewaschuk is dancer, fibre artist and academic based in Toronto. She shares her original embroidered artwork @exp.threads, which she describes as “stitching stories with thread and words.” Ewaschuk’s work draws on a wide range of influences from modernist art to Korean folk culture to the Yiddish cultural milieu. Inspired by early 20th-Century Expressionist painters, she interprets their dynamic brushwork into lively stitches and bold embroidery.

Rochelle Rubinstein is a Toronto-based printmaker, painter, fabric and book artist and community art facilitator. Her work has been exhibited at the Irish Museum of Modern Art, Ireland; Yeshiva University Museum, New York; Print Triennial, Estonia; and McMaster Museum of Art, Royal Ontario Museum, and Chinese Cultural Centre, in Canada. For eighteen years, Rubinstein was a member of Loop Gallery, where she presented regular solo exhibitions. Rubinstein’s work can be found in public collections such as the Museum of Modern Art, New York; the Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin; and the Victoria & Albert Museum, London.

Jessica Thalmann is an artist, curator and educator currently based in Toronto and New York City. She received an MFA in Advanced Photographic Studies from ICP-Bard College and a BFA in Visual Arts from York University. She has been an artist in residence at the Banff Center for Arts and Creativity, Alberta, and at the Southern California Institute of Architecture in Los Angeles. Her work has been shown at Aperture Foundation, International Centre for Photography, Camera Club of New York Baxter St, and Humble Arts Foundation (New York), VIVO Media Arts Centre (Vancouver), Museum of Contemporary Art, Harbourfront Centre, Art Gallery of Mississauga, Varley Art Gallery of Markham, Angell Gallery, Gallery TPW, Art Spin, Koffler Arts and The Bentway (Toronto). Her permanent public sculpture and mural, commissioned by BMO, opened in 2025 at BMO’s new flagship branch at the Eaton Center.

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. 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.

FENTSTER Pop-Up @ PIX FILM Gallery
1411 Dufferin Street, Unit C (north of Dupont at Geary)
Toronto, ON M6H 4C7
fentster.org
info@fentster.org

Facebook @Fentster
Instagram @fentster_gallery

Accessibility:
PIX FILM Gallery is partially accessible. There is an outdoor ramp to access the gallery. Regrettably, the washrooms are not fully accessible.