derStandard, Austria, Tuesday 19 Juni 2012

Ingeniously Friendly
Wiltrud Hackl

English translation: Kathrin Wolkowicz

With Totally Devoted To You, the Dutch artist couple Gil & Moti give a review in the basement of Lentos in Linz.

Linz – They became a friend to a whole city, no matter to whom; if it was the young adults they worked with, the supermarket cashier they bought apples from, or a lady who approached them at a café and whom they met with. They were visible – also, because they appear interested and noticeably always dress alike. On the one hand this was convenient, on the other hand it made clear that they were artists around the clock and their work was not restricted to just the museum.
After six weeks Gil & Moti leave Linz, but “We´re coming back!” they ensure. Their art in the Lentos´ basement will be a topic for discussion even longer after their departure since the issues, which the Israelis are working on, are discursive. For the work Available For You, they put themselves into service working for Arab immigrants in Rotterdam. They were cleaning, helping out in shops or for instance cooking for a woman of Arab descent and her son.
She wanted her son to get a different image of the Israeli, she responded to the question why she took part in this project, Gil recounts. For the projects in which they make conflicts visible or question systems of rules, Gil & Moti use all sorts of techniques: performance, video, installation or etchings and paintings, with which they want to point to issues in Israel, as in Dreamers and Storytellers.
In Linz they worked with members of the Emo-scene on the project Colored Swan. Young adults who seemed partly indifferent in the beginning developed interest in art and museums as fields of activity through this work. Whereas in a different work, Dating Gil & Moti, they drew attention to how impossible it is for Arab men to freely express their sexuality in their own country. Gil & Moti themselves have been married for over ten years. (Wiltrud Hackl, DER STANDARD, 20.06.2012)