We are pleased to invite you to the third exhibition of works by Gregor Hildebrandt at Wentrup.
Hildebrandt’s art is defined by the use of cassette and video tape. He is not interested merely in the specific texture of this material, but in the nature of the cassette tape as a storage medium.
The title "Dass dieser Mai nie ende" (If only this May would never end), a line from Konstantin Wecker’s song Nur dafür lasst uns leben (Let us only live for that) refers to the basic theme and mood of the exhibition. The beginning of May stands for the anticipation of summer, so the start of the weekend on Friday evening – the date of the opening – is its counterpart.
A square cassette tape picture, with a deep frame where various empty bottles are casually placed, is reminiscent of a typical private party where, as it gets later and the more alcohol is consumed, the guests take over the furnishings. The continuation as a bottle frame, while simultaneously ignoring the laws of gravity, makes gentle fun of this habitus and takes it to its absurd extreme.
The main work of the exhibition is a monumental cassette case which is loaded with countless empty boxes and booklets of tapes that have been used in other works. A massive archive and testimonial of Hildebrandt’s work so far – its weight, however, is lightened by a painterly gesture, making the work a panoramic picture covering a whole wall.
In addition to these two works, there is also a display case inserted into the wall of the gallery. Hildebrandt will place the butt and ash of a cigarette he has smoked himself in it, refering to Piero Manzoni’s Fiato d’artista (1960), which consisted of balloons filled with the artist’s breath, and thus raising questions of authorship and value.
If the contemplation of his art incorporates the heterogeneous cosmos of Gregor Hildebrandt’s references to music, film, literature and, last but not least, art history, his works turn out to be complex montages, in which pictorial associations from different spheres combine and interpenetrate. Hildebrandt employs the material of his every-day environment without aesthetic or theoretical inhibition and playfully links aspects of conceptual art and minimal art with his personal life and experience of pop culture.
Since his first gallery exhibition with Wentrup in 2005, Hildebrandt’s work has found considerable attention. His work has been shown in various exhibitions, including the Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis, Kunstverein Ludwigshafen, Kunstverein Schwerte, Galerie Almine Rech, Grimm Fine Art, Bortolami Gallery and Galerie Yvon Lambert, NY. In June 2009 Hildebrandt will have a solo exhibition at Berlinische Galerie.
