• Motivation: The inspiration for the sculpture dates back to the artist’s school days. While learning about historical Greek columns in an art education class, he experienced a vivid morning daydream, expressing a whimsical desire to always wake up surrounded by a classical temple colonnade. Being invited to design a pillar for the collective STOA169 project allowed him to bring this early imagination into reality decades later. 
• Material: To construct the pillar, Hildebrandt relied on his characteristic artistic technique: assembling layered, physical vinyl phonograph records. By stacking numerous black audio discs on top of one another, the ridges and edges of the records naturally mirror the vertical fluting typically carved into ancient stone pillars. 
• Meaning: The installation serves as a non-functioning, silent repository of cultural history. Although the records hold actual audio data within their grooves, their permanent placement within the structure makes the music forever unplayable. By trapping the sound, the sculpture transforms a physical playback medium into a conceptual monument about time, prompting the audience to envision the hidden auditory layers using only their thoughts.

Gregor Hildebrandt was born in Bad Homburg, Germany, in 1974. He currently lives and works in Berlin. He is professor for Painting and Graphics at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich since 2015.Hildebrandt’s works are present in renowned collections, such as the collection of Centre Pompidou in Paris, the Contemporary Art Collection of the Federal Republic of Germany, the Martin Z. Margulies Collection in Miami and the Burger Collection in Hong Kong.

MORE