Julius von Bismarck

Julius von Bismarck (b. 1983) is a German artist born in Breisach am Rhein who lives and works between Berlin and Switzerland. He grew up in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, and studied Visual Communication and Fine Arts at the Berlin University of the Arts, as well as at Hunter College in New York. From 2009, he studied at the Institute for Spatial Experiments founded by Olafur Eliasson at the Berlin University of the Arts, graduating as a master student in 2013.

Working across sculpture, installation, photography, video, performance and landscape interventions, von Bismarck investigates how humans perceive, classify and attempt to control the natural world. His practice frequently moves between art and scientific experimentation, examining the systems through which ideas of nature, reality and human sovereignty are constructed. Natural phenomena such as fire, lightning, landscapes, animals and geological formations become both subjects and active materials within his work.

Von Bismarck's projects often involve extensive research and the development of technological devices or experimental processes. Optical illusions, physical transformations and unexpected interventions destabilise seemingly familiar environments, drawing attention to the distance between what we perceive and the physical realities surrounding us. Central to his work is a critique of the conceptual separation between humanity and nature, and of the structures of domination that have emerged from this distinction.

In 2012, von Bismarck became the first artist-in-residence at CERN in Geneva. His work has been presented internationally in solo exhibitions at the Berlinische Galerie, Berlin; Bundeskunsthalle, Bonn; Palais de Tokyo, Paris; Deichtorhallen, Hamburg; KunstHaus Wien, Vienna; and the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, Melbourne, among others. His works are held in numerous public collections, including the Hamburger Kunsthalle, Sprengel Museum Hannover, FRAC Alsace and the Federal Collection of Contemporary Art in Germany.