ACCA is delighted to present This is not the storm, the first Australian solo exhibition by Julius von Bismarck.
Encompassing a major new kinetic sculpture, photography, and immersive video installations, this exhibition brings together more than two decades of work, much of it never before seen in Australia. With wry humour, von Bismarck challenges our habitual understanding of the natural world, teasing apart the idea of ‘nature’ as a social construct – a romanticised arcadia, an economic resource, a benevolent or vengeful force.
This is not the storm showcases the breadth of von Bismarck’s practice, characterised by a sense of continual experimentation, scientific curiosity and technical virtuosity. His works emerge from direct, physical encounters and collaborations with elemental forces that defy human control.
Accentuating the awe, wonder and terror that natural phenomena can provoke, von Bismarck constructs poetic, unsettling, and oftentimes absurd encounters that problematise our understanding of reality and our relationship with the environment. In doing so, he signals the disastrous consequences of humanity’s domination of the natural world in the age of the Anthropocene—prompting us to reconsider the logic and systems that have brought us here.
Curated by: Dr Shelley McSpedden
ACCA warmly thanks the Goethe-Institut, Australia for their support of this exhibition.
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.
