Michail Pirgelis, born in 1976, is a Cologne-based artist who reinterprets the legacy of post-minimalism and conceptual art through his unique approach to found materials. Primarily using parts from decommissioned aircraft found in cemeteries across California and Arizona, Pirgelis challenges traditional notions of sculpture. His works, which range from large metal pieces to floorboards marked by use, maintain their original aesthetic—scratches, paint traces, and all—while subtly altered by his hand. This minimal intervention allows the materials’ past lives to resonate within new contexts, transforming them into enigmatic artworks that blur the lines between industrial waste and relics of civilization. Pirgelis’s art provokes a reevaluation of objecthood, playing with the aesthetics of the undefined and the sublime, much like the works of Gordon Matta-Clark and Rosemarie Trockel. His pieces invite viewers into a space of aesthetic uncertainty and contemplative beauty, highlighting themes of loss, memory, and the transformation of meaning.
