Gregor Hildebrandt

The Portraits “Series of Cinema” Icons by Gregor Hildebrandt

Exhibition at the St. Regis Hotel Venice, September 2023 till May 2024

Gregor Hildebrandt is a German artist based in Berlin.

His signature media are cassette tapes and vinyl records, which he collages and assembles into apparently minimalist yet latently romantic paintings, sculptures, and installations.

Resting in silence behind the glossy surface of his analogue aesthetics, which verges on black and white monochrome, music and cinema haunt his practice. Whether pictorial or sculptural, all of his works contain pre-recorded materials, which he references in the titles.

Gregor Hildebrandt’s cassette shelves reflect the artist’s insatiable interest in music and cinema. An evolution of his paper works and connected to his granite pieces, both of which feature iconic figures of cinema, these works are inspired by the shelves commonly used to store cassettes during the golden age of analogue media. They recreate paintings or portraits that have been cut and then glued onto the inlays contained in the cases.

For the St. Regis Venice, Gregor Hildebrandt has created a series of four large cassettes shelves, especially made for the niches of the Grand Salon (lobby). The actresses depicted on the shelves have been chosen for their participation in films and for playing roles in reference to the four seasons of the year. Respectively evoking Spring, Summer, Fall and Winter, the portraits of the cinema icons Magda Schneider (Spring), Zooey Deschanel (Summer), Nadia Sibirskaia (Fall) and Mylene Demongeot (Winter) surround the room and welcome the guests in the Grand Salon:

• Magda Schneider for her role of Elli Nolte in „Spring Air“ (1938) directed by Karel Lamac
• Nadia Sibirskaia for her role in the short film „Brumes d’automne“ (1929) directed by Dimitri Kirsanoff
• Mylene Demongeot for her role of Milady de Winter in „Les Trois Mousquetaires“ (1960- 1961), France – Italy, directed by Bernard Borderie
• Zooey Deschanel for her role in „(500) Days of Summer“ (2009), directed by Marc Webb

Some sections of the images have been altered with cut-outs inspired by the motives of torn posters taken from city billboards and walls. By revealing the cassette inlays hidden under the images, the cut-outs offer a partial access to a list of songs. This music archive heightens the nostalgia contained within the works and introduces another temporality than the area of the portraits. His iconic works are represented in collections and museums like Centre Pompidou Paris, Rubell Family Collection Miami, Martin Z. Margulies Collection Miami, Collection Steve and Chiara Rosenblum Paris, Pat and Juan Vergez Collection Buenos Aires, Kunsthalle Prague. Gregor Hildebrandt´s works are on display all over the globe at the leading art fairs like Art Basel, Frieze, Arco Madrid, ZonaMaco, The Armory Show and many more. The artist Gregor Hildebrandt is currently one of the hottest contemporary artists in the world.

Photo credit © Roman März

Price on request for artworks gw@editionartco.com

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