20 Oct 2011

Gil & Moti: Totally Devoted to You at Stavanger Art Museum

Gil & Moti shows works from 2001-2011 in the exhibition tour TOTALLY DEVOTED TO YOU. This collaborative duo have established a manner of working that includes painting, installation, video, photography, printmaking and direct actions in the public space. They have been living their lives as a continual performance working with the communities around them. Their work deals with conventions of identity, politics and trying to make the personal political. Gil & Moti spends a month in Stavanger where they seek contact with minority groups, artists and others whom they will randomly encounter. The filmed and photographed documentations of these encounters is a relevant part of the exhibition.

The exhibition is the result of joint efforts by Kunsthallen Nikolaj in Copenhagen, Lentos kunstmuseum in Linz, Museum Bochum in Bochum, Stavanger kunstmuseum in Stavanger and Tensta Konsthall in Stockholm.

THE GIL & MOTI WEDDING PROJECT
2001
In June 2001 we performed publicly, in a highly theatrical and non-conventional gesture, our wedding. This project was carefully staged and it was part of the cultural program of the city of Rotterdam, and open to all city residents. The civil ceremony was conducted by the mayor himself, Mr. Ivo Opstelten, and followed by the public performance of our honeymoon, ten days in the foyer of Rotterdam city hall, with a huge bed surrounded by artworks that we had made especially for the event.

YOU BROUGHT THE LIGHT BACK TO MY LIFE
2011
On December 5th, at our first day in Stavanger we noticed a stranger following us. Tommy, who is also a graffiti artist, suggested he would guide us around in his town. During that time we learnt to know him and the complexes that troubles his life.
At the end of that day we offered him to spare our skills in return, and help him to organize his private life.



LAYLAH THE CREATURE BEYOND DREAMS
2004
Stretching the borders between art and life we let ourselves literally fall in love with the enemy whilst obsessively documenting the one year relationship we had with Oliver from Lebanon. In a video and mixed media installation we unfold the love story, from the first day we met on the internet to heartbreak.

DREAMERS AND STORYTELLERS
2011
In this installation we knowingly observe Israeli reality with a critically shrewd eye; a multifarious society that nowadays typifies both the world in general and Israel in particular. We look at social-political problems and direct the gaze specifically towards the town of Jaffa on the fringe of Tel Aviv, Um El Fahem on the fringe of Israel, and at Palestinian and migrant workers who are on the fringes of society. The intuitiveness that governs the paintings, etchings and dreams, envelops a range of emotional and sensory response.

AVAILABLE FOR YOU
2008 – 2011
We made a serious attempt to perform a gesture of generosity for European immigrants from Arab countries. By offering to give a helping hand or lending a shoulder to carry a burden we opened up new ways of communication between hostile communities. The series of short diary like videos presents these encounters.

DATING GIL & MOTI
2003 – 2008
With the aim of making friends with Arabs, we went on a long term search for pen-pals on gay dating sites on the internet, offering to make a watercolor portrait of each one. Combining the portraits with written responses we created an installation that showed the correspondence with more than 100 chat-mates over six years.

LETTERS TO LAYLAH
2002 – 2005
We began this work by creating an imaginary Arab lover named Laylah to whom we were addressing a series of letters. In them we mixed up private memories with experiences from Israel, in text and image, while referring to the segregation of Israelis from Arabs.

GIL & MOTI PRESENT THEIR CHOICES FROM STAVANGER ART MUSEUM'S COLLECTION