Page 3 news, Saturday, May 7— “ISRAELI GAYS SEEK ARAB GOYS FOR MIDEAST MAN-LOVE 'ART'” —the New York Post.

Wanton promiscuity? —The Post certainly aims to leave that impression. It jumps right in—“[Gil & Moti] will date Arab men — and then discreetly have sex in the gallery.” This inference is drawn by Post reporter Howard Stier to feed the prurient longings of his editors and readers. —Gay love means casual fucking.

The language used by artists Gil & Moti and Jack the Pelican gallery is very specific. No where do they say Gil & Moti will fornicate in the gallery. Quite to the contrary, the notion—clearly stated in gallery literature for their performance “Sleeping with the Enemy”—is rather more innocent than that: “Gay Israeli men court Arab.” A spectacle of casual sex this is not.

Gil & Moti want to fall in love. Their sweetly rendered installation Bed for Three hints at the hope of an eventual consummation. As indeed do all lovers dream. But the romantic tradition of courtly love in which these artists work—which not incidentally came to the West from the Arab world during the Crusades—demands the sublimation of raw sexual urges and the deferal of sexual relations. In the middle ages and Renaissance, gentlemen cultivated the art of letters; knights wrote poems to their beloveds. Gil & Moti paint lovely watercolors to theirs. Their exhibition at the Jack the Pelican features hundreds. Ours is a visual age.

Stier rides roughshod over this important but subtle distinction between courtship and seduction. His cynical equation of wanting to fall in love with trying to get laid does a disservice to the integrity of Gil & Moti’s “Sleeping with the Enemy.” No doubt, there is innuendo to their project. Their diary detailing intimacy with their former boyfriend Oliver, for example, focuses on the sweet details of their love. “Today he smiled five times.” Make of it what you will... but "porn?!?" —Oh please! Mr. Stier.

Even he acknowledges the deeper dimension of their work, when he finally lets them speak:

“As schoolkids, we were taught to hate Arabs. It was getting worse. There's no basis for communication, no understanding of their culture," said Gil.

"As Israelis, we couldn't ignore it. We thought we must do something that will overwhelm the politics, so we decided to fall in love with an Arab.”

—Jack the Pelican
May 12, 2005

For more information, go to press release.

Or visit http://www.gilandmoti.nl