In *Wunderkind*, Martine Gutierrez delves into her own childhood. No fictional characters or studio sets—just photographs and self-portraits dating back to her childhood. Through themes such as performance and play, she demonstrates how identity is formed and expressed, and how art and personal transformation intertwine. The exhibition runs through October 18, 2026, at Huis Marseille, located at Keizersgracht 401.
Since 1999, Huis Marseille has been entirely dedicated to photography as an art form, making it the first museum in the Netherlands to take that approach. The museum regularly updates its program: following Gutierrez, works by Andrzej Steinbach and Maya Inès Touam, among others, are scheduled, and later this year, the first-ever European museum exhibition dedicated to photographer Adolphe de Meyer. Gutierrez’s work fits into this tradition: photography not as a document, but as a means of exploring who you are.
Her youth experiences add another layer to the series: you see not only who she is now, but also traces of who she used to be.
What makes the exhibition special is the location where it is on display. Huis Marseille is housed in two connected 17th-century canal-side buildings dating from 1665. Marble fireplaces and 18th-century ceiling frescoes have been preserved, including a ceiling painting by Jacob de Wit from 1730 in the garden room. A Louis XIV-style room, with a red interior from the early 18th century, stands alongside Gutierrez’s contemporary work: two centuries meeting on the same wall.
The exhibition is built around self-portraits in which Gutierrez takes on a different guise each time. Performance and play recur throughout, not as lighthearted elements but as serious tools for exploring personal transformation. Her early work adds an extra layer to the series: you see not only who she is now, but also traces of who she was before she began reshaping herself, layer by layer, role by role.
The museum features fourteen exhibition spaces spread across five floors, along with a photography library, a specialty photo book store, and a canal-side garden with a gazebo where visitors can enjoy a cup of coffee on a stone bench. As you walk through the rooms, you’ll see old and new constantly coming together: the red Louis XIV interior from the early 18th century alongside a self-portrait that’s less than a year old. That is precisely why Wunderkind demonstrates how you can reinvent yourself time and again, amid 17th-century marble fireplaces and a ceiling by Jacob de Wit.