The exhibition, which will span The Ranch’s gallery spaces and grounds, premieres the artist’s newest and most ambitious outdoor sculpture, Free Willow—a living, 30-foot willow tree that will remain at The Ranch permanently and be activated for the first time during the exhibition’s opening on Saturday, August 9, 2025.

At first glance, Free Willow appears to be just that: a willow tree, calmly rooted in place. But then it begins to move. Its long branches sway and swing in smooth, rhythmic gestures, as if stirred by some inner impulse rather than the wind. The motion feels deliberate, even expressive. It’s surprising, uncanny even, to watch a tree behave as if it has decided to perform. In a sense, it has. von Bismarck has devised an underlying mechanical intervention that grants the willow the agency to do so. Beneath the surface and hidden from view, a motorized system sets the tree in motion, but the technology stays quietly out of sight. What the viewer sees is a tree moving of its own volition, swaying not because of environmental forces, but because it can—because it wants to. In doing so, the tree upends our assumptions about nature’s agency and, by extension, non-human sources of power and control. With Free Willow, the tree is granted the freedom to willow—to act, to dance, to be seen—not as a passive landscape, but as a performer.

About the Artist

Julius von Bismarck is a graduate of the Berlin University of the Arts (UdK) and the Institute for Spatial Experiments, founded by Olafur Eliasson, with whom he studied during his Master’s program.

He has presented solo exhibitions at Berlinische Galerie; Bundeskunsthalle; Palais de Tokyo; Kunstpalais Erlangen; Städtische Galerie Wolfsburg; Artothek Kunstverein Göttingen; and Kunstverein Arnsberg, among others. Upcoming solo exhibitions in 2025 and 2026 are scheduled in Austria, Australia, and China.

Von Bismarck has participated in numerous international group exhibitions, including at the Palais de Tokyo and the 1st Antarctic Biennale at the Venice Biennale (2017). He received the Ars Electronica award in 2008 for his project Image Fulgurator and was the first artist-in- residence at CERN (the European Organization for Nuclear Research) in 2012. He lives and works in Berlin.