Hektor Mamet

Hektor Mamet was born in 1983 in Zürich (CH). He lives and works in Paris (FR).

During his years of study, Hektor Mamet began transforming domestic products into dysfunctional objects. On one hand, the goal was to render the object useless; on the other, it was to allow the object to represent itself, without assigning it any other function. These objects are part of a project initiated in 2005 and still in development: a continuous investigation into humanity and society through objects.

“If we look closely at a spoon, we understand what kind of society designed it and what kind of city it would build.” (Ernesto Rogers)

The various objects created by Hektor allow him to address different societal issues, such as poverty in the project S.D.F. / S.V.P., or the relationship between the value of products and their cost of production—indicated by wooden numbers on the walls above his useless objects. The graphics are stereotyped, reminiscent of those used in supermarkets and furniture stores.

In his work, the placement of objects constructs a value scale: prices are strictly positioned above the useless products, which lie flat on the ground—because, as he says, “defective or unusable things are always on the floor.” In the end, everything is done for money…

This body of work culminated in two new projects: one is a pedestal made for a person, behind which the word “new” is displayed—because “with new household items, we also need new people.” The other is the construction of a question mark in pairs or groups, formed by combining two elements: a dot joined with an arc-shaped form. In both works, visitors to the exhibition are photographed, becoming actors in the project.