Gil & MOTI, Gil & Moti

Fiddler on the Roof Video | dv | colour | 2'30'' | Israel / Netherlands | 2008 © Gil & Moti During the course of a sunny afternoon, overlooking the skyline of Tel Aviv which stands out in the horizon, a violinist passionately plays a hybrid composition, reconstructed from Israeli as well as Palestinian hymns. The hours of hard work as well as the mental ache, leave their mark on the neck of the violin layer, as the last scene in the video shows. This injury is a metaphor of the long and painful struggle between two people and two cultures. Taking the author's nationality and Israel's current situation as a point of departure, concepts such as humanity, expiation and forgiveness acquire greater importance. These are precisely recurring themes in this dual presentation. In the video, the artists convey a utopian wish that the two enemies will succeed in living peacefully side by side. Gil Nader was born in Rishon LeZion, Israel, in 1968. Moti Porat in Ganey Yehuda, Israel, in 1971. They have live and worked together since 1994 under the name "Gil & Moti," and have been based in Rotterdam since 1998. They have both received a degree from the Bezalel Academy of Art and Jerusalem Design in 1997, after which they received an MFA from the Piet Zwart Institute in Rotterdam and Plymouth University. Amongst their recent individual exhibits are included "Sleeping with the Enemy" in New York, "Love Grows Free" at the Eric Dupont Gallery in Paris, "Dating Gil & Moti" at the Mucsarnok Kunsthalle in Budapest, and "Available for You" at Kunsthallen Nikolaj in Copenhagen. The Israeli and Dutch governments have financially supported their projects. Their work is exhibited in collections such as the Tel Aviv Art Museum, the Haifa Art Museum, and the Mumok in Vienna. Artist statement We Gil & Moti, are duo artists living and working together since 1994. Our work moves freely between life, the visual arts and performance. The decision to live life as a performance and to make art a way of living creates a tension, which motivates the work and is presented in the form of: installation, video, painting, writing and performance. With our work we engage in the appropriation of public space and its effect on human relationships. Our projects involve the rehabilitation of the network of associations in a given community. An analytic critique of the relationship of private life and public space constitutes an important facet of our practice. Jewish Israelis by birth, gay and immigrants in Holland we contribute with our work to the contemporary debates about being different and the rules of social coexistence. We express these concerns with vulnerable poetic narratives, suspended between reality and fantasy visualized in a range of images from mundane to highly theatrical. Other text Toilet cleaning as artistic conflict broker At the moment two identically clad Israeli men run around in Nørrebro performing favours for people with Arabic background. They scrub floors, polish windows and babysit children - all as part of an art-project that is exhibited at Kunsthallen Nikolaj (Nikolaj, Copenhagen Contemporary Art Center). ART PROJECT by Sandra Boss/ Information, Copenhagen They are wearing completely identical clothes. The same glasses. And the same little dark ponytail sticking out from on top of the back of the head. The twin-look is the uniform of the Israeli artist duo Gil & Moti, which they wear running around in Nørrebro at the moment, offering favours to inhabitants with Arabic background. The favours consist of a variety of things, ranging from for example cleaning, babysitting and window polishing to carpentry work. The free favours are recorded on video and exhibited as part of their performative and site specific project ‘Available for You’ that is shown on television screens at Kunsthallen Nikolaj in the heart of Copenhagen. As they sit there in the lunch room of the art center, they stand out as a caricatured version of the kind of married couples who over the course of time have fallen into such a deeply symbiotic relationship that a distinction between personalities appears meaningless. But the two middle aged men take their identical appearance seriously. They say that they are dressed identically at all times and that they are always together. They are married, live and work together and attend the same activities, they say. “We have built a common identity to challenge the myth of the ego. To share an ego is a constant state of negotiation, and it is this negotiation that we have made our life project,” says one part of the duo, after which the other part takes over: “We wish to make people think of identity as a room where agreements must be met and peace has to be developed.” Toilet cleaning Gil & Moti’s private lifestyle is reflected in their works that evolve around reconciliation and understanding between the two well known belligerents: Israel and Palestine. In Nørrebro it is also this conflict that the two artists base their work upon. By doing favours for people with Arabic background in this area of Copenhagen, they wish to open up for a new platform for communication where arch enemies can meet in dialogue. Gil & Moti do not think that the submissive position stands in the way of creating a relationship based on respect. “It is a symbolic action we carry out that challenges the firmly cemented identity patterns. Gil and I have been brought up to fear our nabour the Palestinians. But by using art as a tool for creating new communication platforms, we can suddenly open up for new ways of regarding the opponent,” says Moti, whereupon Gil takes over: “We believe that if you give something, you will also get something in return. Here in Copenhagen we have put ourselves in a very unartistic position, where we have been on our knees scrubbing toilets. It has been a position that has brought us very close to a few individuals, and which has made them open up their hearts.” The potential of naivety Gil & Moti have chosen the work situation as their artistic starting point, as it contains a clear and simple reference point to the power relationship that many Arabs accommodate to. “It is in the work situation that the position of the Arabs in society is made visible. Through work the Arabs are able to enter other countries. They are in a position where they have to accept the jobs available to them. We have wanted to comment on this state of things, and we do it through exaggeration and naivety,” says Moti. Even though Gil & Moti do good deeds for a vulnerable exposed minority in Denmark, they have no intention of acting as social workers. They work with a limited capacity as base, where they constantly think of the final artwork. “When we enter a shop and offer a favour to a person who is a stranger, we are very aware that we are performing and that we are exhibiting ourselves. We are always accompanied by a third eye, the camera, that documents our actions and we have a specific artistic goal that we work toward.” It is this artistic result that Gil & Moti believe will be able to change the prevailing discourse between Arabs and Israelis. Art should be used for changing societal conditions, they believe. This attitude is considered naive within the art world, say the two artists, who themselves are proud of their naivety, as it is one of their most important artistic tools: “Our art project is naive by definition. We do not wish to engage in politics or move country borders. Our naive attitude towards the possibilities of art is part of our performance that is supposed to force people to open up for new discourses and viewpoints. The naivety can be useful in escaping the habitual thinking and as a strategy to create new relations,” says Gil, and Moti takes over: “Art should be used for communicating and in reacting in a world that is in a state of war. Art can be a voice with a social role in society.” List of exhibition, filmography... Selected Solo Exhibitions 2008 What do You Want to Be When You Grow Up? -Art Center, Haifa Museum of Art, Haifa, Israel. Gil & Moti at Williams College and 62 Center, Williamstown, MA, US. Available for You- Kunsthallen Nikolaj, Copenhagen, Denmark. We Hope You Like it the way we Do- Kulturhuset, Stockholm, Sweden. 2007Golden Dream- De Praktijk , Amsterdam, Holland. 2006 Love Grows Free- Gallery Eric Dupont, Paris, France. Love Stories- De Praktijk , Amsterdam, Holland. Dating Gil & Moti- Mucsarnok / Kunsthalle , Budapest, Hungary.- Mucsarnok / Kunsthalle , Budapest, Hungary. Willing to give you everything- Godot Gallery , Budapest, Hungary.2005 Sleeping With the Enemy- Jack the Pelican Presents, New York, New York. 2004 Laylah the Creature Beyond Dreams - Kunsthalle Wien, Vienna, Austria. A Home of Our Own- Layr:wuestenhagen zietgenoessische kunst- Vienna, Austria. Wide Open- 7x11- Artoteek Den Haag, Holland. Dating Gil & Moti- Lokaal 01- Breda, Holland. Letters to Laylah-Lokaal 01- Antwerpen, Belgium. 2002 Fresh Feelings & Boyzone Pavilion- Herzelia Museum, Israel. Road to a Dream- Tal Esther Gallery and Kav 16 Gallery, Tel Aviv, Israel. (catalogue) 2001 Gil + Moti Kijk x Shop- Artis, Den Bosch, Holland (catalogue). The Gil & Moti Wedding Project- Stadhuis, Rotterdam, Holland. 2000 Fresh Feelings & Boyzone Pavilion- TENT., Rotterdam, Holland. 1999 Gil & Moti Homegallery- ongoing project, Rotterdam, Holland. Selected Group Exhibitions and screenings 2008 Combined– Vishal, Haarlem, Holland. Marathon- Jewish Museum, Amsterdam. Promenades Insomniaques- PASSAE DE RETZ, Paris, France. (catalogue) Gustarbieder– Mediamatic, Amsterdam, Holland. 2007 BoysCraft– Haifa Museum of Art, Haifa, Israel. (catalogue) Love is Like Oxygen/Liefde in de Stad- W-139, Amsterdam, Holland. Paulo Post Futurum- Breda`s Museum- Breda, Holland. The Tent Show- Nikolaj Kunsthalle, Copenhagen, Denmark. Miscellanees- Gallery Eric Dupont, Paris, France. Kunsthalle Wien- Ursula Blickle Video Archive , Vienna, Austria. 2006 Show Off- with Gallery Eric Dupont, Paris, France. Arteast Collection 2000+23- Moderna galerija- Museum of Modern Art, Ljubljana, Slovenia (catalogue). Academy. Learning from the Museum- Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven, Holland. Intimate Spaces, Schwules Museum, Berlin. 2005 SuperStars- Kunsthalle Wien, Vienna, Austria (catalogue). HOME at TENT.- TENT., Rotterdam, Holland (catalogue). iFilm- We are looking for you Arab Lover, (on Internet,iFilm.com) Artistic Strategies- Moderna Museet, Stockholm, Sweden. 2004 Para-site- MUMOK, Museum Moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig Wien, Vienna, Austria. This Side Up- Amsterdam - Horst Janssen Museum, Oldenburg, Germany. A Point of View- Tel - Aviv Museum of Art, Tel - Aviv, Israel. San Francisco Jewish Film Festival- The Gil & Moti Wedding Project, San Francisco, CA. 2003 The Claim of Images ... Jewish Perspectives in Modern Art– Museum Bochum, Bochum, Germany (catalogue). homepage