When the black tape inside an old VHS cassette unravels, what remains is not merely the memory of a recorded image; the material itself turns into a vast surface. For years, Gregor Hildebrandt has been materializing the silence of analog media by using cassette tapes, magnetic strips, and vinyl records as painting and architectural building materials. Marking his 11th collaboration with Wentrup Galerie, “Park by Poco” transforms the gallery space through the very physical weight of these objects.
The first element that catches the eye in the exhibition is the transparent “room within a room” setup rising in the middle of the space and fixed with a monumental panel. In new works such as das Garten, produced with acrylic and VHS tape coating on canvas, Hildebrandt creates pitch-black textures where the image is erased yet the tape’s own sheen remains. The main surprise awaiting the visitor, however, is the artist’s first collectible bar design, integrated into the body of a wall woven from vinyl records.
The exhibited works are like vast sound libraries where music once listened to or scenes once watched are quietly imprisoned. Rather than displaying these defunct materials as nostalgic objects, Hildebrandt transforms them into the gallery’s columns, walls, and sculptural forms.
