The work Beds was displayed for the first time in the exhibition Beds in the Kibbutz Art Gallery in Tel Aviv in 1985.
The source of this work is a photograph of a hospital bed I was laying in after an open heart surgery I went through in Hadassah Ein Karem hospital in Jerusalem in 1973.
The photograph of the bed was displayed as part of alignment of the works Exposure that was displayed in Yodfat Art Gallery in Tel Aviv in 1975.
The other connection to the work is a photograph of my deceased son Yotam, which was taken in Assaf haroffeh medical centre when he got ill for the first time in 1977 when he was nearly 6 years old. The photograph is of Yotam laying in an hospital bed, a very similar type to mine, and connected to an infusion. The beds are a reduced in size (half) and accurate copy of the same type of bed.
The two beds (seemingly children's beds), reflect the common fate of me and my son. Two children who spent long periods being hospitalized.
This work was displayed few times during the years in different contexts. Lately it was displayed as part of the array Yotam, work that is dedicated to my deceased son Yotam and is part of it. It was displayed as part of the ever growing array of the Mausoleum on which I have been working for many years.
This work was displayed also in Sarayevo 2000 that was dedicated to building an international collection for a new museum in Sarayevo, as a gesture of the art world to the sufferings of the bosnian people.
The relevance of this work to the theme of the exhibition Terrorrism does not need explanation. As far as I am concerned the hard sights of the terror are its victims, that are usually summarized and represented by wounded people hospitalized and particularly the wounded children.
Gideon Gechtman
