The Triple Heart
Elisabeth Delin Hansen,director of Kunsthallen Nikolaj, Copenhagen

Published in: Gil & Moti: Available for You, project publication, 2009, Kunsthallen Nikolaj, Copenhagen/TENT., Rotterdam

Available for You is an obvious further devel- opment of the series of projects undertaken by Gil & Moti since 2002, in which they, as Israelis, reach out to Arabs with a gesture of mutual understanding and reconciliation. The first one was Letters to Laylah, taking as its starting point the artists’ fictitious correspondence with a fictitious Arab lover. Next was Dating Gil & Moti from 2003 in which art that goes by the term relational art, i.e., art that comes into being in public space as projects which involve other people than the artists themselves. In the case of Gil & Moti this has far-reaching consequences. Not only does it include other people acting in what can be defined as the artists’ works; con- versely the artistic statement also becomes a permanent part of Gil & Moti’s very exist- ence. Like French artist Sophie Calle, Gil & Moti stage events for themselves and other people. But whereas Calle does not abandon her defined artistic position. Gil & Moti’s project does not leave them with this pos- sibility. just as consistent – if less final – as French artist orlan who through a number of operations has changed her face, they too have changed their physical appearances and way of life with similar hairdos, clothes, glasses, joint preferences, joint crushes, etc, to the point that wherever they are and what- ever they do it becomes an artistic statement. the statement of Gil and Moti is Gil & Moti, coming across as one persona, the individual components of which are without meaning in themselves, in the same way that one person may only in a figurative sense be perceived as made up by more voices than one.
This statement of unity also informed their love project Laylah the Creature Beyond Dreams, in which Gil & Moti’s love affair with an Arab man represented a challenging negation of the western romantic, couple- based concept of love. the eventual break-up was marked in connection with the presenta- tion of the project at kunsthalle wien and Moderna Museet in Stockholm in 2004 and 2005, which featured a performance with they used the dating pages of the Internet to establish connections with Arab men. the last part of the trilogy was Laylah the Crea- ture Beyond Dreams from 2004, built around Gil & Moti’s falling in love with a Lebanese man and their heartbreak when their life together came to an end. But whereas the trilogy used dating and romantic relation- ships to establish alternative and positive liaisons, Available for You functions on a more general level as an affectionate making themselves available for every (Arab) person who might need them.
The playful blurring of the dividing line between life and art and between private and public space is central to Gil & Moti’s work as it is in the considerable part of contemporary art that goes by the term relational art, i.e., art that comes into being in public space as projects which involve other people than the artists themselves. In the case of Gil & Moti this has far-reaching consequences. Not only does it include other people acting in what can be defined as the artists’ works; con- versely the artistic statement also becomes a permanent part of Gil & Moti’s very exist- ence. Like French artist Sophie Calle, Gil & Moti stage events for themselves and other people. But whereas Calle does not abandon her defined artistic position. Gil & Moti’s project does not leave them with this pos- sibility. just as consistent – if less final – as French artist orlan who through a number of operations has changed her face, they too have changed their physical appearances and way of life with similar hairdos, clothes, glasses, joint preferences, joint crushes, etc, to the point that wherever they are and what- ever they do it becomes an artistic statement. the statement of Gil and Moti is Gil & Moti, coming across as one persona, the individual components of which are without meaning in themselves, in the same way that one person may only in a figurative sense be perceived as made up by more voices than one.
This statement of unity also informed their love project Laylah the Creature Beyond Dreams, in which Gil & Moti’s love affair with an Arab man represented a challenging negation of the western romantic, couple- based concept of love. the eventual break-up was marked in connection with the presenta- tion of the project at kunsthalle wien and Moderna Museet in Stockholm in 2004 and 2005, which featured a performance with the participants producing chocolate triple hearts for the audience. this triple heart is not only a symbol of the broken-off three-way love unity but may be seen figuratively as the very essence of Gil & Moti’s artistic practice. just like most of Gil & Moti’s idiom, this heart is sweet, inviting, immediately under- standable and deliberately kitsch – but with a surprising twist. It talks directly to the emo- tions, but this should not fool us. there are several layers beneath the chocolate.
The enticingly sweet heart is edible as are other elements in Gil & Moti’s perform- ances, for instance the slices of bread with love messages as LOVE, GIVE and ACCEPT handed out by the artists in Copenhagen as a kind of simple, everyday danish Commun- ion. offering something to eat is an almost archetypal symbol of the very act of giving of oneself, of a union in friendship and love. the artists give something of themselves by offering something edible or by offering their working power. In so doing, they place themselves in the avant-garde tradition’s focus on the slightly cannibalistic exchange between the romantic artist-ego and his audi- ence. A tangible and keen commentary on this dynamic was given by Italian artist Piero Manzoni with his Merde d’Artista in 1961, in which he sold his own defecation in small numbered and signed cans. when Gil & Moti give of themselves, however, it is in a more delicate manner.
Back in 2002, they made the double per- formance Guardian Angels and Gil & Moti Multifamily, presenting their themes of love and belonging for the first time. Here the guests were offered the opportunity of having the same cheerful hairdo, complete with the hair wax “antennas”, as Gil & Moti, thus becoming included in “the family”. Another way of giving of oneself, of course, is through the relations which form the basis of their trilogy mentioned above. In Available for You, the focus is on the jewish-Arab conflict, providing the setting for the services offered to people with Arab backgrounds. the lov- ing services are here of an apparently more humble variety: cleaning, arranging goods in shops, and – again – cooking. the project took place as an artists-in-residence stay in April and May 2008, and was presented as an ever-growing exhibition at Nikolaj and at the Centre for world Culture (a community centre at Nørrebro, a part of Copenhagen with a high percentage of immigrants with Arab backgrounds).
These are, however, not merely good deeds. these projects all have a clear political agenda – the trilogy even has two, woven into one: one relating to international politics and one to sexual politics. these actions attain their significance by functioning as works of art presented within the international art public. that the art institutions are mainly to be found in Europe and Israel, so that they have not – at least so far – been shown in the Arab world, may, in this context, seem to present a problem. But despite the signifi- cance of the specific political agendas, Gil & Moti’s scope reaches further.
Let us return to the triple heart. the cheer- ful and innocent aesthetics of Gil & Moti’s works correspond to their apparently slightly naïve actions. But the humour and the intentional simplicity lead us, lightly and joyfully, into a universe where they demon- strate that alternatives to an individualistic, self-absorbed and confrontational culture, based instead on generosity and sensitivity to the surrounding world are in fact possible. German philosopher Peter Sloterdijk has just published a new book bearing the title Du musst dein Leben ändern1 with a clear reference to Rilke’s famous statement before the archaic torso.2 the ethical requirement, which to Rilke springs from the confronta- tion with art, to Sloterdijk arises out of the political reality. Sloterdijk, who in recent works has addressed globalization critically, in his new book points to the necessity that the individual human being starts “practicing” how to act on a higher ethical level. It is the same ethical necessity which Gil & Moti put under debate in their cheerfully wrapped triple heart activities.

1. Peter Sloterdijk: Du musst dein Leben ändern. Frankfurt/Main: Suhrkamp 2009.
2. Rainer Maria Rilke: “du musst dein Leben ändern” in: Archaicher Torso Apollos (Neue Gedichte, 1907).In Steven Mittchell’s translation of Achaic Torso of Apollon: “You must change your life”