Gregor Hildebrandt’s cassette shelves reflect the artist’s insatiable interest in music and cinema. In this series of works, the artist interweaves and connects references from these fields within his own systems of work. An evolution of his paper works and connected to his granite pieces, both of which feature iconic figures of cinema, the cassette shelves are inspired by the shelves commonly used to store cassettes during the golden age of analog media. They recreate paintings or portraits that have been cut and then glued onto the inlays contained in the cases.
This work features Greta Garbo in the film "The Joyless Street" (Die freudlose Gasse), directed by Georg Wilhelm Pabst in 1925. Photographer Alexander Binder made the portrait of the actress during the filming.
The title of the work comes from the poem by Otto Erich Hartleben “O alter Duft” (in English “O Ancient Scent”).