Art Basel Paris
Solo presentation with Julius von Bismarck
Oct 21st – 26th, 2025
Petit Palais, Paris
As part of the Art Basel Paris Public sector, Julius von Bismarck presents three major works at the Petit Palais in Paris: The Elephant in the Room (2023), the series OOOSB (2024), complemented by the video work Grenzen der Intelligenzen (Boundaries of Intelligences, 2024). The Elephant in the Room pairs a taxidermy giraffe with a life-size replica of the bronze equestrian statue of Otto von Bismarck in Bremen, Germany. At first, the sculptures appear as static, —until they begin to collapse inward, only to rise again, rebuilding themselves in a continuous cycle of rise and fall. Towering over the viewer and barely contained within the gallery space, the sculptures evoke early childhood memories of segmented push toys—the direct inspiration for von Bismarck’s piece but comically switched in size between human and toy.The collapse speed is unique to each figure, creating an ever-shifting relationship between them. At times, the two collapse in unison; at others, one remains upright while the other crumples. What once happened easily in the palm of a hand is now transformed into a monumental, choreographed process, scaling up the toy’ to an architectural scale. The Elephant in the Room questions how monuments function and what roles they play in shaping collective memory and social identity. The statue of Otto von Bismarck references the instrumentalization of Germany’s first chancellor in constructing a specific national narrative—a historical influence that endures today. Meanwhile, the giraffe serves as a monument to a romanticized and exoticist past, blurring the lines between natural history and colonial violence. Together, they interrogate the power and fragility of symbolic structures.
Installation view Julius von Bismarck | Petit Palais, Paris
Installation view Julius von Bismarck | Petit Palais, Paris
The title of Julius von Bismarck’s new work series OOOSB is a play on the acronym of Oriented Strand Board (OSB), a cheap building material, and the posthumanist concept of Object-Oriented Ontology (OOO). OOO describes humans, non-humans, and immaterial constructs—for instance, concepts—as objects that are only partially perceptible due to the limits of perception. The underlying hypothesis that every object has its own reality, independent of humans, allows for a conception of existence in which human supremacy is precarious. “Perhaps it takes facing the inhuman within us before compassion—suffering together with, participating with, feeling with, being moved by—can be lived. How would we feel if it is by way of the inhuman that we come to feel, to care, to respond?” (Karen Barad: On Touching – The Inhuman That Therefore I Am). In his OOOSB series, von Bismarck presses animals, plants, and vestiges of civilization into a mass of wood shavings using heavy industrial compression techniques. The artist presses worlds in which the history of the material merges with that of the pictorial worlds into the panels. Julius von Bismarck is renowned for his critical engagement with the relationship between humans and nature, which in his work is often depicted in complex and ambivalent ways. At the center lies the questioning of human concepts of nature—sometimes understood as a fragile environment in need of protection, at other times as a force of brutal violence. The compressed world of these panel works destabilizes the hierarchy between human and nature, opening a new perspective on the intricate interplay of culture, memory, and environment.
Installation view Julius von Bismarck | Petit Palais, Paris
Installation view Julius von Bismarck | Petit Palais, Paris
In the video work Grenzen der Intelligenzen (Boundaries of Intelligences), a fluorescent lamp pulsates and rhythmically radiates its light into the darkened exhibition space. In previous presentations, this effect was extended into the physical space by synchronizing the gallery lighting with the video’s flicker, transforming the piece into an immersive installation. While this element cannot be realized in the Petit Palais, it remains an integral aspect of the work’s conceptual framework. For millions of years, luminous celestial bodies have served as insects’ main orientation points. This has been disrupted by human intervention in their environment, as the use of artificial light makes it impossible for these animals to navigate their habitats. Perpetually flying in circles, they are at the mercy of death by exhaustion. Von Bismarck films their death flights, and, by using a slow-motion camera, the artist is also able to make the inherent flickering of fluorescent lamps perceptible to the human eye. The analogous lights in the gallery simulate this deceleration, paralleling the underlying question of human navigational ability.
Installation view Julius von Bismarck | Petit Palais, Paris
