Stavanger Aftenblad, Norway, Friday 4 November 2011

Art and Life Are One
Trond Bogen

English translation: Maiken Winum

An extraordinary beautiful exhibition that conveys relational art in a sophisticated, yet easily understandable and concrete plan.
Relational art. Not only heard the term abstract and difficult, in practice there are not many artists who have mastered this form of contemporary art from what we have seen in this district last year. Sometimes it stays this art on a private plane, between the athletes and those involved in the art process
Now, finally! Here is an extraordinary beautiful exhibition that conveys relational art in a sophisticated, yet easily understandable and concrete plan: the Israeli artist couple Gil & Motis exhibition <<Totally Devoted to You>> Stavanger Art Museum is full of rich experiences for visitors, while the peculiar way exposes the artists' privacy.
Or rather, these artists have no privacy, because they have chosen to expose themselves as art 24 hours a day. Both as a gay couple who dress identically, as if they were twins (probably inspired by Gilbert & George) who seek sexual partners in many countries, and that social and political actors.
To create the art at the interface between different genes(geners): they call themselves concept artists but is far from the concept art that would rather not be specified in the matter and thus suffer from fatigue (Lawrence Weiner), or which have gradually developed a maniert, decadent relation to ideas (Joseph Kosuth).
They are also obviously performance artists, video documentation and installations shows - such as when they did the ceremony's a theatrical public event in Rotterdam, where they were married by the Mayor and then spend the honeymoon for ten days in a bed in the middle of things the house foyer.
On one level, the exhibition also a series of extended self-portraits, but in contrast to the narcissistic eccentricity of Gilbert & George, cultivated over many years, dishes Gil & Moti gaze out into the world and create and exploit more new relationships with people from different cultures. As Israeli artists meet not only the so-called enemy, they share their life with him - both in relationships over time, as when they lived in a kjaerkinghetsforhold with a man from Lebanon (Laylah the Creature Beyond Dreams) and when they went in as helpers and servants of Arab immigrants in Damark and Holland - Building cleaning, scrubbing the toilet, etc. (Available for You).
These are actions with a strong symbolic value Arabs immigrants to countries where they often have to take low paid servieeyrker, assume the server role, get yourself some Israeli ministers for a time. There are also actions that clearly expresses the artist couple's sexual orientation, as in Dating Gil & Moti, where they use gays dating sites on the Internet to acquire a network of men.
Gil & Moti crosses different boundaries to adapt attitudes to political divisions, ethnic and sexual identity and social relationships. All the time included the new and extensive relationships with people, and everything can be used in the art. They encompass wide in technique and expression ranging from video to watercolors, from writing to the display of trivial objects used in the encounter with others, as if they were relics, remnants of holy persons, with a salvation issue. It does show both rich and eventful.
And as we are, fortunately, left with the question: are these artists really so selvutleverende that we get the impression Aver art and life really one - el - laughs are also an element of fiction?
The exhibition is NOK a result of Stavanger Art Museum coordination of exhibitions with several other European museums. Now we enjoy the benefits of this fruitful cooperation.

 

Publications
Selected Essays
Selected Reviews
de volkskrant- Merel Bem
ArtAsiaPacific Magazine- Rathsaran Sireekan
Mister Motley- Juul van Stokkem
Turun Sanomat- Pia Parkkinen
Puntkomma- Hugo Bongers
de Volkskrant- Jeanne Prisser
derStandard- Wiltrud Hackl
Stavanger Aftenblad- Trond Bogen
Politiken- Sara Maria Glanowski
Metropolis M- Jaring Dürst Britt
NRC- Manon Braat
Kunstbeeld - Wim van der Beek
de Volkskrant- Marina de Vries
New York Arts Magazine- Rodrigo Tisi