Like any true music lover, when German artist Gregor Hildebrandt is enamored with a song he puts it on repeat. For Hildebrandt, however, the music he plays becomes the soundtrack to his prying apart, sawing, unreeling and reassembling of the last six decades’ analogue formats.
In Hildebrandt’s hands, the felt pressure pads inside a cassette tape become a mosaic. Warped vinyl bowls are built to towering totems.
Hildebrandt is the 2016 recipient of The Falkenrot Prize, which is awarded by Künstlerhaus Bethanien Berlin. An accompanying show honouring his work will be at the Bethanien until 8th May 2016.
The show’s catalogue, published by Stroemfeld Verlag, is a collaboration between the artist and Swiss singer Stephan Eicher. It includes an actual recording of unreleased songs by Eicher but, in Hildebrandt’s signature style, the record has been altered; in this case, cropped to the size of the book.
One and a half songs are actually listenable, the rest can only be experienced visually.
Gregor Hildebrandt began making collages with cassette tapes in the late 1990s, when the mixtape was a genre in its own right. In 2003, he began experimenting with vinyl multimedia. The resurging ‘hipness’ of record players shortly after was a coincidence he welcomes.
Of course, his deconstructive process doesn’t touch the music at all– or the memories it contains.
These intangibles evoke the words of one of Hildebrandt’s favorite lyricists, Robert Smith: ‘Held for one moment I remember a song/ An impression of sound/ Then everything is gone.’
‘I love to have a secret inside the painting,’ Hildebrandt says, ‘It’s not only the material, it’s the music that’s on it.’
Any meaning ascribed to the artist’s multimedia is typically only referenced in the title of the work. Lyrics by Sting, Kate Bush and The Cure all appear in his repertoire. But Hildebrandt doesn’t dictate nostalgic moments, he explains, simply creating the opportunities for them.
‘It’s up to the people [what they feel] I only propose an idea,’ be it a wow, flutter– or some other mystery.
Hildebrandt began making collages with cassette tapes in the late 1990s, when the mixtape was a genre in its own right. In 2003, he began experimenting with vinyl multimedia. Pictured: A view of the exhibition ‘Urlaub im Urban,’ Künstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin, 2016; Photography: Roman März
“I love to have a secret inside the painting,” Hildebrandt says, “It’s not only the material, it’s the music that’s on it.” Pictured: view of the exhibition ‘Urlaub im Urban,’ Künstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin, 2016; Photography: Roman März
Any meaning ascribed to the artist’s multimedia is typically only referenced in the title of the work. Lyrics by Sting, Kate Bush and The Cure all appear in his repertoire. Pictured: view of the exhibition ‘Die Geschichte läuft über uns,’ Galerie Perrotin, New York, 2014; Photography: Guillaume Ziccarelli
Pictured left: view of the exhibition ‘Die Geschichte läuft über uns,’ Galerie Perrotin, New York, 2014; Photography: Guillaume Ziccarelli; Pictured right: view of the exhibition ‘Sterne Streifen die Fluten,’ Saarlandmuseum, Saarbrücken, 2015; Photography: Tom Gundelwein
Pictured: view of the exhibition ‘In Jade stände eine Stadt,’ Wentrup, Berlin, 2013; Photography: Trevor Good
Pictured left: Vertikale Wellen, 2015, cut vinyl records and canvas on wooden structure; Photography: Roman März; Pictured right: view of the exhibition ‘XVI. Rohkunstbau ATLANTIS I. Hidden Histories – New Identities,’ Schloss Marquardt, Potsdam, 2009; Photography: Roland Horn
INFORMATION
‘Urlaub im Urban’ is on view until 8th May. For more information, visit Künstlerhaus Bethanien's website
ADDRESS
Kottbusser Straße 10
10999 Berlin
-
Audi launches AUDI, a China-only sub-brand, with a handsome new EV conceptThe AUDI E previews a new range of China-specific electric vehicles from the German carmaker’s new local sub-brand
-
Inside Izza Marrakech: A new riad where art and bohemian luxury meetHonouring the late Bill Willis’ hedonistic style, Izza Marrakech fuses traditional Moroccan craftsmanship with the best of contemporary art
-
Clocking on: the bedside analogue timepieces that won’t alarm your aestheticWe track down the only tick-tocks that matter, nine traditional alarm clocks that tell the time with minimum fuss and maximum visual impact
-
Inside E-WERK Luckenwalde’s ‘Tell Them I Said No’, an art festival at Berlin's former power stationE-WERK Luckenwalde’s two-day art festival was an eclectic mix of performance, workshops, and discussion. Will Jennings reports
-
Alexandra Pirici’s action performance in Berlin is playfully abstract with a desire to address urgent political questionsArtist and choreographer Alexandra Pirici transforms the historic hall of Berlin’s Hamburger Bahnhof into a live action performance and site-specific installation
-
Berlinde De Bruyckere’s angels without faces touch down in Venice churchBelgian artist Berlinde De Bruyckere’s recent archangel sculptures occupy the 16th-century white marble Abbazia di San Giorgio Maggiore for the Venice Biennale 2024
-
Lawrence Lek’s depressed self-driving cars offer a glimpse of an AI future in BerlinLawrence Lek’s installation ‘NOX’, created with LAS Art Foundation, takes over Berlin’s abandoned Kranzler Eck shopping centre
-
Ryoji Ikeda and Grönlund-Nisunen saturate Berlin gallery in sound, vision and visceral sensationAt Esther Schipper gallery Berlin, artists Ryoji Ikeda and Grönlund-Nisunen draw on the elemental forces of sound and light in a meditative and disorienting joint exhibition
-
Monica Bonvicini ‘I do You’ review: bondage, mirrors and feminist takes on masculine architectureEmily McDermott reviews Monica Bonvicini’s much-anticipated exhibition ‘I do You’ at Berlin’s Neue Nationalgalerie
-
Artist Ian Cheng explores the technological and aesthetic potential of AIIn Berlin’s cavernous Halle am Berghain, New York-based artist Ian Cheng plunges viewers into an immersive world of AI and existential anime in ‘Life After BOB’
-
Documenta 15 review: social practice, controversy and food for thoughtMired in evolving controversy, Documenta 15 has raised critical questions about transparency, accountability and creative freedom. Emily McDermott travels to Kassel to explore how an edition filled with social practice art urges active participation and throws global power structures into sharp relief
