A heritage of Israeli master paintings is the starting point for an ongoing artistic conversation between Gil & Moti and the artists in question; all are Jewish immigrants to Mandatory Palestine and the state of Israel. Spanning from the 1940s to the 1970s, these paintings by, among others, Joseph Zaritsky, Moshe Bernstein, Yohanan Simon, Baruch Agadati, Jacques Mory-Katmor and Zvi Gera, portray the migrant Jew and the Israeli landscape, right after the foundation of Israel. Gil & Moti treat these artworks as readymades and integrate them into their own new paintings; Over the glass that protects the original artwork they add a layer of painted imagery that responds to the historical art piece, and at the same time reflects the contemporary reality of Israel.
The work of Israeli born duo artists Gil & Moti comprises paintings, video and performance, and offers an artistic analysis of social and political predicaments in Israel. It turns the eyes of the viewer to places and people located on the margins of the Israeli landscape. Gil & Moti recognize themselves in the principles of ’Relational Aesthetics’, conceived by Nicolas Bourriaud, French theorist and curator, where artworks take human relationships as the starting point. Art itself becomes a political gesture that challenges the public.