Julius von Bismarck: The First, the Last, Eternity, 2025
Kunst am Bau at Terminal 3, Fraport, Frankfurt am Main
"Human imagination has always been limited and always will be, but the limits can shift. The moment we understood that we live on a round body rather than a flat one, those limits shifted significantly. What initially seemed like a crazy theory is now an integral part of what we call reality."
Julius von Bismarck
Humans are capable of intuitively imagining three spatial dimensions. Each additional spatial dimension, however, confronts our imagination with a seemingly impenetrable barrier. Thinking about higher-dimensional spaces is possible only through conceptual tools and visual analogies—without them, many physical theories would be difficult to grasp.
Just as a three-dimensional object can cast a two-dimensional shadow, a four-dimensional object can be represented through a three-dimensional projection. For example, when a four-dimensional shape rotates, its three-dimensional projection can appear to turn inside out.
This highly abstract idea becomes visible reality in the installation that Julius von Bismarck has created for the new Terminal 3 at Frankfurt Airport.
In the terminal hall, three torus-shaped sculptures hover as if suspended in air. A torus is a mathematical object that can symbolise the three-dimensional projection of four-dimensional bodies. Their amorphous surfaces consist of rotating aluminium discs that describe different topographies. Their continuous movement is visible even from a distance: they slowly turn inside out and are in a simultaneous rotational movement. Silently driven from within, their interior becomes their exterior and their exterior becomes their interior.
The three ring-shaped bodies move on different scales of human perception - from the microscopic to the human to the cosmic. Each torus describes its own plane of world and perception, connected by the same movement and the same form.
The smallest of the bodies has a surface whose structure is based on microscopic images of passion flower pollen. Using a scanning electron microscope, its shell was captured point by point and assembled into a digital relief. This topography was transferred to the shape of the torus - a landscape whose scale cannot be grasped by the human eye. What was originally smaller than a speck of dust unfolds here into an endless surface. The pollen, otherwise invisible in the air stream, becomes a geometric body that turns inside out.
The central torus depicts the topography of the Earth. Continents, mountain ranges and oceans are in constant rotation. The Earth, transformed into a torus shape, becomes an endless expanse on which travellers who move long enough in one direction eventually return to the starting point of their journey. Just like on a spherical Earth.
Finally, the largest torus depicts cosmic microwave background radiation - the residual radiation from the Big Bang. It is the most distant and oldest signal we can perceive. It marks the boundary of our observation and sphere of influence and represents the universe curved in the (possibly) fourth dimension. What may have existed before the Big Bang or what lies beyond this background is beyond human comprehension of space and time.
For many people, their first flight and the experience of flying represent a fundamental expansion of their perception. From a bird's eye view, the curvature of the Earth is revealed and the time of day, which changes with the direction of flight, becomes visible. It is as if one could observe the Earth's rotation in real time. Frequent flyers may be accustomed to this phenomenon, but in the installation The First, the Last, Eternity, the connection between the microcosm and macrocosm in which we move is made tangible for all visitors to Terminal 3.
"We do not know what shape the universe has. The part we can observe is too small to draw conclusions about the shape of the entire universe - it either continues "flat" indefinitely or curves into a T3 or a 3-torus, for example. So it can be either endless or infinite."
Julius von Bismarck
One might wonder what flight routes would look like if the Earth were shaped like a torus. How would this affect our understanding of orientation and direction? What would "up" or "down" mean if the geometry of the planet changed fundamentally? What new horizons or boundaries would arise for movement, navigation and perception? What would travel in a fourth dimension look like? In our current perspective, are we inside or outside, above or below — or are these concepts merely constructs that serve the purpose of orientation?
Julius von Bismarck was born in Breisach am Rhein (Germany) in 1983 and grew up in Riyadh (Saudi Arabia) and Berlin. He lives and works in Berlin and Switzerland. He studied at the Berlin University of the Arts, Hunter College New York (USA) and the Institute for Spatial Experiments founded by Olafur Eliasson.
By linking fine art with other areas of research and experimentation, such as the natural sciences and humanities, the results of Julius von Bismarck's artistic practice can take various forms - from kinetic sculptures, photographs, video and landscape installations to performances. His works are united by a profound exploration of phenomena of perception and constructions of reality. An important focus of his work is the negotiation of nature as a socially constructed fiction.
The artist has developed numerous international solo exhibitions, most recently at the BeiQiu Museum of Contemporary Art, China (2025), KunstHaus Wien, Austria (2025), Berlinische Galerie, Germany (2023), Bundeskunsthalle Bonn, Germany (2020) and the Palais de Tokyo in Paris, France (2019). In 2026, the artist will open his first solo exhibition in Australia at the ACCA, Melbourne. Von Bismarck has also participated in various international group exhibitions and biennials.
