Olaf Metzel (b. 1952, Berlin) is a German sculptor whose practice confronts the frictions of contemporary life through the transformation of everyday and mass-cultural imagery into volatile sculptural forms. Known for his concept of “Living Context” , Metzel reconfigures materials such as police barriers, furniture, and printed media into works that oscillate between critique, irony, and spectacle. Respect (2022) and Sticky Fingers (2024), exemplify this approach. Here, iconic album covers and press images are digitally printed on aluminum and steel, then twisted and crumpled into unstable, monumental reliefs. The works dislodge familiar pop-cultural symbols from their smooth surfaces of consumption, re-staging them as fractured, wrinkled monuments to collective memory. They hover between reverence and destruction: homage to music’s cultural power, but also commentary on its commodification and endless reproduction. Metzel, who has taught at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich since 1990, rose to prominence with works such as 13.4.81 (1987), a controversial installation of stacked police barriers referencing a protest around the RAF. His sculptures often ignite debate by exposing the tensions between media, politics, and public space. Through distortion and compression, his recent works turn pop history into sculptural debris—compressed icons that force us to consider not only what we remember, but how.