This painting shows a muslim boy who is getting conscious of his special position during the common prayer in a church (instead of a mosque). The painting was inspired by a visit of Bert in the spring of 2015 at the cathedral of Valencia in Spain. Direct cause for the painting however was the discussion also in the sping of 2015 about the closure by the police in Venice of an art installation in the form of a functioning mosque made inside a long unused Catholic church that served as Iceland’s national pavilion for the 56th Venice Biennale. City officials declared the art project a security hazard and said that the artist who created it, Christoph Büchel, had not obtained proper permits and had violated laws by allowing too many people inside the mosque to worship. The provocative project was intended in part to highlight the absence of a mosque in the historic center of Venice, a city whose art and architecture were deeply influenced by Islamic trade and culture, like Valencia in Bert's painting. The issues the installation raised also went to the heart of the debate raging across Europe about Muslim worship and culture as immigration from Islamic countries rises.
