Julius von Bismarck’s work forces a perceptual adjustment, like going to see a mental chiropractor. His ultimate subject, in objects, images, performances, and the movement of land, is how we see the world, and in turn construct reality. This pursuit can take the form of a discrete object, such as Die Mimik der Tethys (2019), an encrusted buoy plucked from the Atlantic, and fixed, swaying with the currents from a ceiling or Fire with Fire (2019), a series of images made from and reshaping the California fires, bringing the beauty and terror of Romance to the twenty-first century. Von Bismarck’s diverse projects often require the artist to travel far and wide. For Talking to Thunder (2017), he spent time in a remote area of Venezuela on a quest to manipulate lighting bolts, and onward to the far reaches of Russia for his signature landscape paintings. Space Fish (2017) found von Bismarck teaching tropical freshwater fish to swim through the cold waters of the Antarctic Sea facilitated by a custom swimsuit.
The artist continues to work in the public realm. His Public Face (2010) has been installed on rooftops in Lindau, Berlin, and Vienna. In it, the artist uses advanced facial recognition software to control an oversized steel-backed smiley face with a flexible eye and mouth area reflecting the city’s mood. In 2021, the city of Essen will unveil a city park transformed by von Bismarck into a memorial for the city’s vanished twentieth-century buildings in the form of 1-to-8 scale steel replicas of each destroyed structure at 1-to-8.
Julius von Bismarck is a graduate of the Berlin University of the Arts (UDK) and the Institute for Spatial Experiments funded by Olafur Eliasson, with whom he studied for his 2013 Master’s Degree. He has mounted solo exhibitions at the Bundeskunsthalle, Bonn, Germany; the Palais de Tokyo, Paris, France; Kunstpalais Erlangen, Erlangen, Germany; the Städtische Galerie Wolfsburg, Wolfsburg, Germany; Artothek Kunstverein Göttingen, Göttingen, Germany; Kunstverein Arnsberg, Arnsberg, Germany. He has also taken part in international group exhibitions, among them the Palais de Tokyo and the 1st Antarctic Biennale (2017) at the Venice Biennale. He was the winner of the Ars Electronica award in 2008 for his project, Image Fulgurator. In 2012 he was the first artist in residency at the CERN (the European Organization for Nuclear Research). He lives and works in Berlin.
Solo Exhibitions
2021
NEUSTADT, with Marta Dyachenko, Emscherkunstweg, Bochum, Germany
Landscape Painting, Sies + Höke, Düsseldorf, Germany
2020
Feuer mit Feuer, Bundeskunsthalle, Bonn, Germany
2019
I Am Afraid, with Julian Charrière, Sies + Höke, Dusseldorf, Germany
Die Mimik der Tethys, Palais de Tokyo, Paris, France
2018
Immer noch der Lauf der Dinge, alexander levy, Berlin, Germany
I’m afraid I must ask you to leave, with Julian Charrière, Kunstpalais Erlangen, Germany
Public Face, with Benjamin Maus and Richard Wilhelmer, Hamburg, Germany
2017
Gewaltenteilung, Städtische Galerie Wolfsburg, Germany
Walking to Thunder, Sies + Höke, Dusseldorf, Germany
Good Weather, Marlborough Contemporary, New York, NY, USA
2016
Approximately Three Dimensions, alexander levy, Berlin, Germany
Desert Now, with Julian Charrière and Felix Kiessling, Steve Turner, Los Angeles, CA, USA
Objects in mirror might be closer than they appear, with Julian Charrière, Villa Bernasconi, Grand-Lancy, Geneva, Switzerland
2015
Landscape Painting, Marlborough Chelsea, New York, NY, USA
Tiere sind dumm und Pflanzen noch viel dümmer, Kunstverein Göttingen, Germany
2014
History Apparatus, Kunstverein Arnsberg, Germany
2013
Unfall am Mittelpunkt Deutschlands, alexander levy, Berlin, Germany
Les bêtes sont bêtes et les plantes le sont encore plus, Galerie Ilka Bree, Bordeaux, France
This is so romantic, IMO Gallery, Copenhagen, Denmark
2012
Punishment I, alexander levy, Berlin, Germany
LE DICTATEUR: These Peanuts are Bullets, Family Business, New York, NY, USA
2011
5 Minute Museum, Eindhoven, The Netherlands
2009
Kapelica Gallery, Ljubljana, Slovenia
Selected Group Exhibitions
2021
SEE STÜCKE – Fakten und Fiktion, Alfred Ehrhardt Stiftung, Berlin, Germany
2020
Als wir verschwanden. Vier Videoarbeiten, Bündner Kunstverein, Chur, Switzerland
NEUSTADT, Emscherkunstweg, Oberhausen, Germany
Féstival Images Vevey, Switzerland
Amish Quilts meet Modern Art. Staatliches Textil- und Industriemuseum Augsburg, Germany
2019
Nowness Experiments: The Mesh, K11 Art Foundation, Shanghai, China
Just a bowl of cherries, 7th Thessaloniki Biennale, Experimental Center for the Arts, Thessaloniki, Greece
Festival GAMERZ 15e Édition, Aix-en-Provence, France
The Third Bank, Anozero ’19 – Bienal de Coimbra, Portugal
Das Tier in der Kunst, Wurlitzer PTC, Berlin, Germany
No mould. Sculpture in the MUSAC Collection, Museo de La Rioja, Spain
Symposium at the 58th Venice Biennale – SPACE IS THE PLACE, Centro Culturale Don Orione Artigianelli, Venice, Italy
Elementarteile. Grundbausteine des Sprengel Museum Hannover und seiner Kunst, Sprengel Museum Hannover, Hanover, Germany
Ré-flexions. Autour des nouvelles acquisitions, FRAC Alsace, Sélestat, France
MASK. THE ART OF TRANSFORMATION, Kunstmuseum Bonn, Germany
Post-Water, Museo Nazionale della Montagna CAI Torino, Italy
Nature in Art, Museum of Contemporary Art Krakow (MOCAK), Poland
2018
Days without a Night, Goethe Institut New Delhi, India
Entangle | Physics and the Artistic Imagination, Bildmuseet, Umeå, Sweden
Lichte Momente, Stadthaus Ulm, Germany
The Sensation of the Sea: In Honour Of Bas Jan Ader, The Mesdag Collection, Den Haag, The Netherlands
Räumlichkeiten, Kunstwerk – Sammlung Klein, Eberdingen-Nussdorf, Germany
Im Zweifel für den Zweifel, NRW Forum, Dusseldorf, Germany
Objects in Mirror Might Be Closer Than They Appear, with Julian Charrière, Swiss Institute, New York, NY, USA
Are you satisfied? Aktuelle Kunst und Revolution, Stadtgalerie Kiel, Germany
Entfesselte Natur – Das Bild der Katastrophe seit 1600, Hamburger Kunsthalle, Germany
Between Realities, Färgfabriken, Stockholm, Sweden
Power to the People, Schirn Kunsthalle, Frankfurt am Main, Germany
2017
Antarctic Biennale, The Antarctic Pavilion, Venice, Italy
KULT! Legenden, Stars und Bildikonen, Zeppelin Museum, Friedrichshafen, Germany
Festival of Future Nows, Hamburger Bahnhof – Museum für Gegenwart, Berlin, Germany
Unter Waffen. Fire & Forget 2, Museum Angewandte Kunst, Frankfurt am Main, Germany
Citynature: Vilnius and Beyond, National Gallery of Art, Vilnius, Lithuania
PRODUKTION. Made in Germany Drei, Sprengel Museum Hannover, Hanover, Germany
Santiago Sierra. Mea Culpa, PAC Padiglione d’Arte Contemporanea, Milan, Italy
NACH DER NATUR – Material, Form, Struktur, Museum Sinclair-Haus, Bad Homburg, Germany
2016
The End of the world, Centro Pecci Prato, Italy
It’s all natural . . . /, Nassauischer Kunstverein, Wiesbaden, Germany
Über die Unmöglichkeit des Seins, Kunsthalle Exnergasse, Vienna, Austria
In Space No One Can Hear Your Laugh, Galleria Giovanni Bonelli, Milan, Italy
Kunstpreis der Böttcherstraße, Kunsthalle Bremen, Germany
From Science to Fiction, Florian Christopher, Zurich, Switzerland
Art Cologne, New Contemporaries, Germany / alexander levy, Berlin, Germany
+ultra. Gestaltung schafft wissen, Martin-Gropius-Bau, Berlin, Germany
5th Moscow International Biennale for Young Art, Trekhgornaya Manufaktura, Moscow, Russia
2015
OPENING ON THE FOAM, Schloss Sacrow, Potsdam, Germany
Art Basel Unlimited, Switzerland
Welcome to the Jungle, KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin, Germany
The Future of Memory, Kunsthalle Wien, Vienna, Austria
Invento | As Revoluções que nos Inventaram, OCA Parque Ibirapuera, São Paulo, Brazil
Stranger than Paradise, Sies + Höke, Dusseldorf, Germany
Beuys ohne Hut – Karin Székessy fotografiert Künstler, Horst-Janssen-Museum, Oldenburg, Germany
Fire and Forget. On Violence, KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin, Germany
Group Show V, alexander levy, Berlin, Germany
8th Momentum Nordic Biennial of Contemporary Art, Moss, Norway
2014
Lichtwark revisited Künstler sehen Hamburg, Hamburger Kunsthalle, Hamburg, Germany
Treasure of Lima: A Buried Exhibition, Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary Academy, Cocos Island, Costa Rica
ONE PLACE NEXT TO ANOTHER, Winzavod Centre for Contemporary Art, Moscow, Russia
thingworld, International Triennial of New Media Art, National Art Museum of China (NAMOC), Beijing, China
5th Annual Exhibition of Hybrid Art, VDNKh, Optika Pavilion, Moscow, Russia
Die Eigenheit der Dinge, Franz Josefs Kai 3, Vienna, Austria
2013
BERLIN. STATUS [ 2 ], Künstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin, Germany
TEA, National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts Taichung, Taiwan
Ich bin dein Nachbar, Bromer Art Collection, Roggwill, Switzerland
Skulpturenprojekt Wallanlage / Stade, Germany
Public Abstraction Private Construction VI VII, Kunstverein Arnsberg, Germany
LE DICTATEUR : UN HOMME JUST EST QUAND MEME UN HOMME MORT, Palais de Tokyo, Paris, France
2012
13th International Architecture Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia, a collaboration with Julian Charrière, supported by Vogt Landscape Architects Ltd., Venice, Italy
Syabi, Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography, Japan
Weltausstellung, Tempelhof Airport, Berlin, Germany
2011
Electron Festival, Geneva, Switzerland
Kackwald, Nation of Gondwana, Grünefeld, Germany
Pièce de Résistance, Mediamatic, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
2010
Transmediale 2010, Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin, Germany
Reflective Interventions, Gallery Art Claims Impulse, Berlin, Germany
Shift Festival, Basel, Switzerland
Stadt am Rande, Today Arte Museum, Beijing, China
Agents & Provocateurs, Hartware MedienKunstVerein Dortmund, Germany
Persistence of Vision, Foundation for Art and Creative Technology (FACT), Liverpool, UK
2009
Artefact – BEHIND THE IMAGE | THE IMAGE BEHIND, Stuk Kunstencentrum Leuven, Belguim
Agents & Provocateurs, Institute of Contemporary Art, Dunaújváros, Hungary
My Map Is Not Your Map, Arteleku, San Sebastian, Spain
Pixelache 09, Kiasma – Museum of Contemporary Art Helsinki, Finland
2008
HU-Berlin, Institut für Physik, Quantenoptik, Berlin, Germany
Social intervention, Gallery Sangsangmadang Seoul, South Korea
