Our studio Sunday feature today is Julius Von Bismarck. Von Bismarck is a young artist currently based in Berlin, Germany. In his artistic practice, Von Bismarck uses installation, photography, and video to produce artworks that exist halfway between traditional art and scientific exploration. 

The artist’s studio is located in a large industrial space that Bismarck shares with a number of other creators. The studio space looks busy, even a bit chaotic -- I can imagine that with several people each working on their own separate projects, a space would fill up with various discarded or saved materials quite quickly. The space is packed with bits and scraps of wood, metal, and plastic, as well as the equipment needed to work with such media -- not to mention tables and other furniture. 

The overall mood of the studio is space is cheerful yet hardworking -- one can imagine not only fine artworks being produced, but also a lot of experimentation and exploration into different media. Von Bismarck’s works frequently draw on industrial engineering and ideas of scientific experimentation in addition to fine art principles.

A recent work of Bismarck’s, Egocentric System, was shown at Art Basel. The artwork consists of a large, slightly concave rotating platform holding a bed and a desk for the artist. Bismarck lent the piece a performance aspect by spending many hours living -- sleeping and working -- on the rotating platform while audiences moved past it. The piece, deceptively simple, represents an intersection between performance art and engineering, with the finer points of the platform’s construction involving a great deal of technical finesse.

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