Following his highly successful first UK exhibition, ‘American as Well’ at Site Gallery in 2004, artist Martin Sastre is returning to Sheffield to participate in the gallery’s International Residency Programme.
Martin will be developing a new video project during his residency inspired by the Hollywood film ‘Freaky Friday’. In the film a teenage girl exchanges her body with her mother after making the same wish, “I wish I could be another person, to finally understand and face the difficulties of being the other”. After Martin discovered he shares the same birthday, the 13 February, as Robbie Williams, his quest to transpose his life for another was confirmed. What will be the result of this exchange, swapping the life of ‘the anonymous artist from a peripheral country’ for the life of the globe trotting, award-winning super star. Could this be a dream come true for Martin, obtaining international fame and stardom and for Robbie, the chance to return to a life of an unknown musician, or will it end in disaster?
The work will explore the experience of being the ‘other’, by trading two diametrically opposed lifestyles and circumstances and continue Martin’s commentary on the international art scene, from the eyes of a Latin American artist trying to establish himself in the mainstream art world.