Since I remember, I have always known my mom with the same haircut. She has had the same color and hairstyle for at least 20 years. I already asked her why is she keeping this specific haircut? My mom answered that if she changes it, she would not be the same person anymore. I like to believe that if she keeps this haircut, it is because it gives her some superpowers, and if she changes it, she will lose them.

So I decided to go to the hair salon with my mom and ask for the same haircut.

Maybe I will also get some superpowers!

For 7 days, my girlfriend and I slept in a white bedsheet, while wearing drawing pencils gloves. As we sleep, our unconscious movements left traces on the bedsheet that serves as a canvas. This experiment resulted in a drawing of our shared rest. 

By transforming this unconscious and banal task into a performative labor, this work explores the choreography of the everyday.  

With approximately 8h of sleep during 7 days this drawing took us more than 50h.

Drawings of Dutch lanscapes made by Martin while riding his bike. To do so, he created DIY drawing gloves with watercolor pencils attached to each finger, allowing him to draw in real time.

Through his travels, Martin became fascinated by tourists taking photos in front of tourist places. From the moment that traveling photography came in, being photographed in specific places became a phenomenon. 

During a week-long trip to Köln, he decided to embrace this ritual that he never fully understood and perform as the ultimate tourist. Equipped with an I love Köln T-shirt and a small digital camera, Martin visited the most popular tourist attractions and asked strangers to take his photo in front of them. 

The pictures are screenprinted by Martin on typical souvenir objects to be found in tourist shops — objects that we bring home as the trophy of our trip. In the same function as the photograph, They prove that we have been there.
By having strangers taking the photos, Martin is not the only one performing. He is also making them active participants in the work.

It is a collaborative process between the strangers who document him as a tourist and Martin who turns the proof images into artifacts of tourism.

‘Cheeeese!!!’ is a project that explores the tradition of tourist photography, the commercialization of traveling, and the performative act of visiting places. 

A screen-printed photograph of a roast chicken on a French national football jersey. The roast chicken, which is a traditional French familial dish, is placed in combination with the rooster embroidered on the jersey, the French animal emblem. This playful contrast highlights the ambiguity of celebrating the rooster as a national symbol while also cooking and enjoying it as a meal.

For the past few years, Martin Gobert has been hunting for memory cards from second-hand digital compact cameras, searching for the memories of strangers. The more he collected, the more he noticed our tendency to preserve similar souvenirs: family occasions, holidays, and moments of celebration—the pure moments of “joy”.

This project stems from his fascination with vernacular photography, an archival tool that stamps and preserves moments spent with family. This is precisely what makes it a gold mine—a way to investigate human behavior by observing what we consider worth remembering. ‘Souvenir Mimetism’ explores how unique but yet similar our souvenirs are preserved. He questions what we choose to memorize, reflecting on the ironic model of remembering.

Martin created an interactive installation incorporating two elements:

— Universal photo albums, using found albums as a canvas, containing photos from the various memory cards he collected. He reappropriates them by integrating turning wheels with the faces of his family.

— Cut-out boards from his family archive, where you can place your face inside the cut-outs, reappropriating his personal souvenirs.

Amiens is my hometown.

Situated in the north of France, it is the 27th biggest city in the country. It is a proper city, but not big enough to be popular. Since I was little, I grew up with the idea that being from Amiens was not cool; I was ashamed of coming from the province. As soon as I had the opportunity, I didn’t hesitate to move to Paris, and then to The Hague.

I was in search of a place where I could finally be cool as well.

After 5 years away from my hometown, I missed it;
it missed me. I had to go back
I understood that there’s nothing cooler than
being proud of the place where you come from.

In the past months, I’ve made several trips to Amiens:
Observing the streets, interacting with the people,
collecting concrete, searching for a reconnection with my city.

This project is about a love/hate relationship.
It is about turning shame into power.
It is about finding beauty in the dirt.
This project is an ode to my hometown.

AMIENS, remember this name!