ACCA is pleased to present This is not the storm, the first Australian solo exhibition by German artist Julius von Bismarck. Spanning kinetic sculpture, photography, and ambitious video installations, this exhibition brings together more than two decades of work, much of it never before seen in Australia. With wry humour and a sharp critical edge, von Bismarck challenges our habitual understanding of the world, teasing apart the idea of “nature” as a social construct.
This is not the storm showcases the breadth of von Bismarck’s practice, characterised by research-driven experimentation across physics, technology, and the social sciences. Whether channelling the power of raging forest fires, turbulent seas, or hurricanes, von Bismarck engages with elemental forces that defy human control. His work plays with the dual sensations of awe and terror provoked by natural phenomena, offering poetic yet unsettling meditations on perception, scale, and agency.
From transformed everyday objects to large-scale investigations in remote or extreme locations, von Bismarck probes our understanding of reality and questions our relationship with the environment. In doing so, he signals the disastrous consequences of humanity’s domination of the natural world – prompting us to reconsider the systems that have brought us here.
Curated by: Dr Shelley McSpedden
About the artist:
Julius von Bismarck (b. 1983, Breisach am Rhein) lives and works in Berlin.
Recent solo and group exhibitions include: When Platitudes Become Form, Berlinische Galerie, Museum für Moderne Kunst, Berlin (2023); The Bright Side of the Desert Moon, Noor Riyadh Festival, Riyadh (2023); Mexichrome: Fotografía y color en México, Museo del Palacio de Bellas Artes, Mexico City (2023); La Pista 500, Pinacoteca Agnelli, Turin (2023); The Adventure of Abstraction, Sprengel Museum, Hanover (2023); Forest Through the Trees, Adam Aronson Fine Arts Center, St. Louis (2022); Breathing Water, Drinking Air, Philara Collection, Düsseldorf (2022); Chronicles of Disappearance, Mönchehaus Museum of Modern Art, Goslar (2022); When the Wind Blows, Kunst Haus Wien, Vienna (2022); Neustadt (with Marta Dyachenko), Emscherkunstweg, Duisburg (2021); Feuer mit Feuer, Bundeskunsthalle, Bonn (2020); Parallel Worlds: Art, Science & Fiction, Kunstmuseum Celle (2020); Als wir verschwanden, Bündner Kunstmuseum, Chur (2020); Baumanalyse, Haus Mödrath – Räume für Kunst, Kerpen (2019); Die Mimik der Tethys, Palais de Tokyo, Paris (2019), among many others.